SUVAT

Does SUVAT take into account friction?

I need to figure out actual acceleration and theoretical acceleration. I know SUVAT is for one or the other -- I just need to know if SUVAT takes into accoun friction.

And if it does, how do I figure out theoretical acceleration if I don't have a force?

It doesn't account for friction, so you'll have to subtract it afterwards.

Given wikipedia's definition of the SUVAT equations (I've seen them before, just not referred to in such a fashion), and my knowledge of kinematics, I'd say forces (including friction) are almost totally unrelated.

The a in these equations refers to the net acceleration of any object travelling in 1 dimension.  I'm assuming this is what you mean by "actual acceleration" (it is after all, the only directly measurable quantity given only its trajectory data of positions, velocities, and times).

When you say "theoretical acceleration", I assume you mean the acceleration of the body in the absence of friction?  If that's the case, then you need to find the partial acceleration due to friction and account for it as >>2 suggests.

acceleration = force / mass

to be used in cojunction with suvat

Woah, woah, woah. Careful. These equations only work with constant acceleration. Frictional forces (and therefore accelerations) are very rarely constant. So you can't use those kinematic eqns. Doing any calculation with friction is a bitch, really.

>>5
Friction usually entails some variation (as do almost all forces), but the variation is generally very small.  To a very good approximation, one can say that friction is constant (at least kinetic friction is).

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suvat doesnt take friction into account

To take account of friction, you should use f=ma
F being all the forces acting upon whatever object you have.
Friction can be accounted for as (mu)R, acting in the opposite direction to movement, where (mu) is the coefficient of friction and R is the reaction of the ground on the object, which will be equal to the objects mass if you are on a flat surface.

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