How does the accelerometer in DE0-Nano work (in words)?

Thank you for your reply mbharat. Can you please check if this statement is correct then?

The accelerometer is a Micro ElectroMechanical System (MEMS) type.

It has capacitors whose one end is fixed, the other is attached to a moving mass.

The capacitor is linear, resulting in a charge that is subject to the equation

(1) q = C v

where q is charge, C is the capacitance and v is the potential difference.

For a parallel plate capacitance is given by

(2) C = ε_0 A / d

where A is the plate area and d is the distance between the plates.

The potential difference V between the plates can be expressed as

(3) v = Ed

where E is the electric field strength between the plates.

By substitution of these to the original formula for q, we get

(4) q = C v = ε (A/d) (Ed) = εEA = εɸ

where ɸ = EA is the electric flux through the surface.

As the capacitor charges to the change of q be power, i_c = dq / dt. By deriving the equation above with respect to time, we get

(5) i_c = (dq)/(dt)

If we put together the equations we have now we can get the displacement current in

the area between the plates of the capacitor:

(6) i = C (dv/dt) + v (dc/dt)

This displacement current is what is reflected and ADXL345 accelerometer used for the measurement of acceleration.