A1 MANUAL 10 MINS LESSON 6.

1 Kinematics

START!

This topic is where you show off your skills on DIFFERENTIATION and INTEGRATION.

When you start reading any kinematics question, you MUST pick up

CLUE TYPES

(a) Initial displacement

(b) Initial velocity
(c) Values of velocity or displacement at other given time, and also value of distance.

And write them down.

See example below

Example 1

A particle starts from rest at a fixed point O and moves in a straight line. The
acceleration of the particle, a ms 2 , t seconds after passing through O, is given by
(10  kt ) ms 2 , where k is a positive constant. The velocity of the particle is 12 ms 1
after 3 seconds.
t=3, v=12

t=0, s=0 Enables equation v to be

displacement is
zero initially (t=0s)
That’s easy rite. Let’s move on.
t=0, v=?
found, because when a is
integrated, we have a
Need to integrate
constant “c”. This info lets
a to get equation
for v. Well, that’s us find “c”
points you to find
it

A moving particle can change direction. But, when will it change direction?

Let me teach this concept with a simple example. You’re driving a car. Before the car can
do a U-turn (change to opposite direction), your car has to _ _ _ _ ? Yes, the car has to
STOP!

If the car stops, what is the velocity at this moment?

Yes, velocity is zero.

Example 2

A particle moves in a straight line so that t seconds after passing through O, its velocity

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A1 MANUAL 10 MINS LESSON 6.1 Kinematics

v cms 1 , is given by v  t 2  6t  5 . The particle comes to instantaneous rest, firstly at

A and then at B.

so, v=0 when the car is about to change to opposite direction. Let’s find out when.

v  t 2  6t  5
v  0, Use cross method, or
0  t  6t  5
2
calculator to solve this
0   t  5 t  1
t  5  0 or t -1  0
t  5s, or t  1s

Now, we know when the particle changes direction, don’t we? All through one simple
knowledge:

Before a moving particle change to opposite direction, it’ll stop for a moment! And
stopping means, v=0

You might wonder why all trouble to know the time of a moving particle changes to
opposite direction.

Well for a very important reason! Read this carefully.

How do you measure distance?

A - start B - end

0m 8m

Distance = end – start

Distance = 8m – 0m

= 8m

What if a car travels like this. We want to find total distance travelled.

A - start B car stops at B, and changes to opposite

direction, and move to C

C - end

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A1 MANUAL 10 MINS LESSON 6.1 Kinematics

0m 3m 8m

Now, there are 2 parts of journey.

Part 1 is A to B, moving in original direction,

Part 2 is B to C, moving in opposite direction

Using same method above, let’s find distance.

distanceAtoB = end – start = 8-0 = 8m

distanceB toC= end – start = 3-8 = -5m

NOTE!

Distance can never be negative.

So, distanceB toC= end – start = 3-8 = -5m = - (-5) = +5m

∴ Total distance = 8m + 5m = 13m

If, we didn’t know when it changes direction,

We would have done this:

Total distance travelled = end – start

= 3m – 0m

= 3m , which is wrong!

In the next lesson, learn how to get the equations of displacement, s, velocity, v, and
acceleration, a in 10secs. That’s right, 10secs!

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