COURSE UNIT 1 – KINEMATICS
respect to time dx/dt.
➢ Motion is the progressive change of
position of a body.
➢ Kinematics, a branch of mechanics
that deals with the description of the
motion of bodies. It involves various
physical quantities such as position,
distance, displacement, time, speed,
velocity, and acceleration.
➢ Position (x or y) of a body is defined
in terms of a frame of reference.
➢ Displacement
• a change in position is
described by the quantity called
displacement.
• displacement is denoted by ∆x
(for horizontal motion) or ∆y (for
vertical motion).
• Mathematically, it is written as:
∆x = xf – xi (motion along x-axis)
∆y = yf −yi (motion along y-axis)
➢ Distance d - the total length of the path
a body actually travelled.
➢ Average speed S is the distance a
body moves in a given unit of time.
➢ Speed vs. Velocity
• If the magnitude of displacement
is less than the total distance
travelled by a body, the
magnitude of the velocity is less
than speed’s magnitude.
• For one-dimensional motion, the
magnitude of displacement and
distance are equal, therefore the
magnitude of velocity and speed
are also equal.
• Velocity is zero when the body
returns from starting point while
the its speed is greater than
zero.
➢ Position-time graph (x-t or y-t graph)
is a graph of the body’s position as a
function of time. It is composed of two
coordinates: vertical and horizontal
coordinate.
➢ Instantaneous velocity v is the limit of
the average velocity as the time interval
becomes infinitesimally short, or as the
time interval approaches zero. It is also
the first derivative of the position with
➢ Instantaneous speed S is defined as
the magnitude of the instantaneous
velocity.
➢ Average acceleration - is the time rate
of change of the velocity (or
instantaneous velocity).
➢ Acceleration - change in velocity as a
function of time.
➢ Velocity-time graph (v −t graph) –
graph of body’s velocity as a function of
time.
➢ Instantaneous acceleration
• is the limit of the average
acceleration as the time interval
goes to zero. It is also the first
derivative of the velocity with
respect to time dv/dt.
• The slope of this tangent line
represents the instantaneous
acceleration at that time.
➢ Interpretation of Motion Graphs
• No motion or at rest
- A body is at rest when its
position does not change
relative to some frame of
reference.
• Uniform Motion/Constant Velocity
- A body is moving uniformly or
at constant velocity when the
distances it moves are equal for
equal time intervals.
• Accelerating at constant rate
- A body is accelerating when the
distances it moves are
increasing during equal time
intervals.
• Decelerating at constant rate
- A body is decelerating when the
distances it moves are
decreasing during equal time
intervals.
➢ Uniformly accelerated motion is a
type of variable motion in which the
velocity of a body changes at the same
rate throughout the motion.
➢ Free fall is a type of motion with
constant acceleration due to the
influence of the earth’s gravitational
attraction.
➢ Projectile is a body that is given an
initial velocity and then follows a path
determined entirely by the effects of
gravitational acceleration and air
resistance.
➢ Uniform Circular Motion is a type of
motion when a body moves in circular
path with constant speed v, that is the
magnitude of the velocity is not
changing.
➢ Centripetal acceleration - change in
direction corresponds to acceleration
➢ Linear speed (or tangential speed), v
is the distance travelled by the body in
one revolution along the circular path in
a given period of time T.
➢ Centripetal acceleration (or radial
acceleration) is the instantaneous
acceleration that compels a body to
move around a circular path. The word
“centripetal” means “seeking the
center”. Therefore, the direction of
centripetal acceleration is always
towards the center of rotation.
COURSE UNIT 2- STATICS AND DYNAMICS
➢ Statics is the branch of mechanics that
deals with state of rest of a certain body
with the application of forces.
➢ Dynamics - a branch of mechanics that
deals with the state of motion of a body
with the application of force.
➢ Force - is defined as a quantitative
description of the interaction between
two bodies or between a body and its
environment.
- vector quantity
➢ Gravitational force Fg between all
objects tends to pull them toward each
other. This universal force affects all
forms of matter from smallest to largest
objects.
➢ Magnetic force Fm allows a magnet to
attract iron objects and to attract or
repel another magnet.
➢ Electric force Fe is the force that exists
between all charged particles (positive
and negative).
➢ Normal Force, η is the perpendicular
force between two bodies in direct
contact. It always acts perpendicularly
towards the object regardless of the
orientation of surfaces.
➢ Nuclear force Fn is a powerful
attractive force that acts between the
protons and neutrons of atoms. This
force is strong enough to overcome the
repulsive force between protons. It
binds nucleons into atomic nuclei.
➢ Frictional Force f is the force that
opposes the motion when two bodies
are in contact. It is the resistance force
experienced by an object moving
relative to another object with which it is
in contact. It is always parallel to the
surfaces and opposite to the direction
of the relative motion
➢ Superposition of forces - The effect of
any number of forces applied at a point
on a body is the same as the effect of a
single force equal to the vector sum
(resultant) of the forces.
➢ Contact force is a force that is in direct
contact between two bodies.
➢ Long-range force acts even when the
bodies are separated by space which
 include gravitational force, electric force
and magnetic force.
➢ Tension T is the pulling force that tends
a body to be stretched. It is usually
applied in solids especially flexible
materials such as ropes, string, wire
cables and belts
➢ Weight w is the vertical force exerted
on all bodies due to earth’s gravitational
attraction. It is always nearly pointing
the earth’s center. In human scale,
weight always acts vertically downward
and acts on a body even if it has no
contact with another body.
➢ Free-body diagram (FBD) - a sketch
of the isolated body which shows only
the forces acting upon it by the removed
bodies
➢ Sir Isaac Newton (1687)
• an English physicist,
mathematician, and natural
philosopher
• published his two-volume
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia
Mathematica (Mathematical
Principles of Natural Philosophy)
that contains his well-known
three laws of motion, also called
Newton’s Laws.
Newton’s First Law of Motion states
that things at rest, stay at rest and
things in motion, stay in motion unless
we give them an external force.
Newton’s Second Law of Motion
relates net force acting on an object to
its acceleration. It states that a net force
on an object will accelerate it.
Newton’s third law of motion states
that an object experiences a force by
means of interaction with some other
object.
➢ frictional force between an object and a
surface equal to a constant number
called coefficient of friction μ
multiplied by the normal force n.
➢ Static friction fs prevents a body from
moving along a surface.
➢ Kinetic friction fk acts when a body
slides over a surface.