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The gradient is a fancy word for derivative, or the rate of change of a function. Itâs a vector (a direction to move) that. 1  Points in the direction of greatest increase of a function (intuition on why)  Is zero at a local maximum or local minimum (because there is no single direction of increase)
You don't need differentiating at all. The gradient of the graph represents the force acting on the mass. First you need to make the graph linear, by making it a- 1/mass (on the X axis) vs acceleration ms-2 (on the Y axis). Then you have a linear graph.