Lesson 4.

2 (Part A) Analysis of Motion in one dimension (motion is a straight line)

Name: Date: Period:
Lesson objectives:

• Calculus definitions of Instantaneous position, velocity, and acceleration functions.

• Perform the timeline sign test to determine the direction of motion of a particle using
the velocity function.
• Comparing the timeline signs for a particle's velocity and acceleration functions to
determine the intervals of speeding and slowing.
Description of functions for one-dimensional motion analysis: (Take notes)
Position function, Displacement, and total distance traveled:
Instantaneous Velocity, speed, and acceleration functions:
Example 1: The figure below shows the position versus time curve of a particle moving along
the x-axis. Describe the motion of the particle over the time interval 0  t  10

In the above example, what is the displacement and the total distance traveled over the time
interval 0  t  10 ?
Example 2:

A particle moves along the x-axis for 0  t  18. The above graph models the velocity of the
particle as a function of time.
(a) Find the time intervals for which the particle moves to the right and left. Justify your
answer.

(b) At what times was the particle momentarily at rest?

(c) During which time interval was the particle moving with a constant velocity? What is the
acceleration of the particle during these times?

(d) What is the acceleration of the particle during the time when it is momentarily at rest?

(e) At what times was the particle speeding and slowing? Justify your answer.

(f) What is the maximum speed of the particle?

Example 3:

The above graph represents the position function of a particle moving along the x-axis as a
function of time t.
a) At what times is the particle momentarily at rest? Explain your reasoning.

b) Find the time intervals for which the particle moves to the left and right. Explain your
reasoning.

c) At the time t = a curve is concave down, Is the particle speeding or slowing at this instant t
= a. Justify your answer.

d) At the time t = d curve is concave up, Is the particle speeding or slowing at this instant t = d.
Justify your answer.
Example 4: A particle is moving along the x-axis. The position of the particle as function of time for 0  t  4 is
given by x(t ) = t 3 − 6t 2 + 9t.

a) Find the velocity and acceleration functions.

b) At what times is the particle momentarily at rest.

c) Find the times when the particle is moving to the left and to the right. Justify your answer.

d) Find the displacement and total distance traveled during the interval 0  t  4.

e) Find the time intervals during which the particle is speeding and slowing. Justify your answer.
Problem 5: A particle is moving along the x-axis. The position function is given by
x(t ) = 2t 3 − 18t 2 + 48t for 0  t  5 . Distance is measured in meters and time in seconds.

a) Find the velocity and acceleration functions.

b) At what times is the particle momentarily at rest?

c) Find the times when the particle is moving to the left and to the right. Justify your answer.

d) Find the intervals of time for which the particle is speeding and slowing. Justify your
answer.

e) Find the total distance traveled. You may use a calculator to make calculations.
Problem 6: The graphs of three position functions are shown in the accompanying figure. In
each case, determine the signs of the velocity and acceleration, and then determine whether
the particle is speeding up or slowing down. Justify your answer.

Problem 7: The graphs of three velocity functions are shown in the accompanying figure. They
represent a particle moving along the x-axis. In each case, determine the direction of motion
and the sign of the acceleration, and then determine whether the particle is speeding up or
slowing down. Justify your answer.
Problem 8: For the graphs in the accompanying figure, match the position functions
(a)–(c) with their corresponding velocity functions (I)–(III).

Problem 9: The accompanying figure shows the velocity versus time graph for a particle
moving along the x-axis.
a) At what times was the particle
speeding and slowing? Justify your
answer.

b) At what time(s) was the acceleration

zero?

c) At what time was the speed maximum?

What is the maximum speed?
Problem 10: Level 1 Problem (No Calculator)

A particle is moving along the x-axis with position x(t) at time t, for 0  t  10 , At time t = 6, the
particle is at position of x = −3 . The graph of particle’s velocity, v, as a function of time, t. is
provided in the above figure.
a) Find the acceleration of the particle at time t = 1. Show the work that leads to your answer.

b) Interpret the graph of v(t) to identify all times on the interval 0  t  10 when the particle
changes direction. Give a reason for your answer.

c) At time t = 6, is the particle moving towards the origin or away from the origin? Give a
reason for your answer.

t + 2  x(t )
d) Determine lim[t + 2  x(t )] and lim[sin( t )] . Evaluate lim
t →6 t →6 t →6 sin( t )
Problem 11: Level 3 Problem no calculator

Ayan is driving due east and passes through the intersection at time t = 0 seconds. The velocity of Ayan’s car can
1 3 3 2
be modeled by the equation v(t ) = − t + t − 4t + 10 , for 0  t  11 , where v(t ) is measured in meters
10 2
per second and t is measured in seconds. Ayan’s car is 900 meters east of the

intersection after 10 seconds.

(a) Find the acceleration of Ayan’s car at time t = 10 seconds. Show the work that leads to your answer and
indicate units of measure.

(b) Is Ayan’s car speeding up or slowing down at time t = 10 seconds? Explain your reasoning.

(c) Keng is standing 1200 meters due north of the intersection. Find the rate of change of the distance between
Keng and Ayan, in meters per second, at time t = 10 . Show all the work leading to your answer.

(d) Ben is in a hot air ballon directly over the intersection. Let  be the angle of elevation from Ayan to Ben,
where  is measured in radians. Let A be the distance between Ayan’s car and the intersection and B be the
distance between Ben and the intersection at time t, both measured in meters. These quantities satisfy the
B
relationship tan  = . Write an equation that describes the relationship between the rates of change of
A
change of  , A , and B .
Problem 12: Train A runs back and forth on an east-west section of railroad track. The Train
A’s velocity, measured in meters per minute, is given by a differentiable function v A (t ) , where
time t is measured in minutes. Selected values for v A (t ) are shown in the table below.

At time t = 2 minutes, train A’s position is 300 meters east of the Origin Station and is moving
east. A second train, train B, travels north of the Origin Station. At time t the velocity of the
train B is given by vB (t ) = −5t 2 + 60t + 25. At time t = 2 minutes the train B is 400 meters to the
North of the Origin Station. Find the rate in meters per minute, at which the distance between
train A and train B changes at time t = 2 minutes.

Problem 13:
Multiple Choice Questions (No Calculator)
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24) A particle moves along the y – axis so that at time t  0 its position is given by y (t ) = t 3 − 6t 2 + 9t.
Over the time interval 0  t  4 , for what values of t is the speed of the particle increasing?
(A) 2 < t < 4 (B) 3 < t < 4 only (C) 0 < t < 1 and 3 < t < 4 (D) 1 < t < 2 and 3 < t < 4

25)

A particle moves along the y-axis. The graph of the particle’s velocity v(t ) at time t shown above for
0  t  4.5 . How many times does the particle change direction over the time interval 0  t  4.5 ?
(A) Three (B) Four (C) Five (D) Eight
26)

A particle traveling on the x-axis has position x(t) at time t. The graph of the particle’s velocity v(t ) is shown
above for 0  t  5 .Which of the following expressions gives the total distance traveled by the particle over
the time interval 0  t  5 .

What are the most aspects of one-dimensional motion you need to know to analyze
problems on motion in one-dimension. Cover definitions, direction of motion, speeding, and
slowing. Also make sure your define the most important functions.
Notes on position function: A particle that can move in either direction along a coordinate line
is said to be in rectilinear motion or generally referred to as motion in one dimension. The line
might be an x-axis, a y-axis, or a coordinate line inclined at some angle. In general
discussions, we will designate the coordinate line as the x-axis, y-axis, or s-axis. We will
assume that units are chosen for measuring distance and time and that we begin observing
the motion of the particle at time t = 0. As the particle moves along, say, the x-axis, its
coordinate x will be some function of time, say x = x(t). We call x(t), y(t), or s(t) the position
function of the particle. The position function has distance units and gives the particle's
location at a given time t relative to the defined origin. we call the graph of s versus t the
position versus time curve (see the graph below)

Notes on Displacement: Displacement of a moving particle in a time interval is defined as the

change in the position of the particle over the time interval. If a particle has a position function
x(t), the displacement over the time interval a  t  b is given by,

x = x(b) − x(a)
Caution: Do not confuse displacement with the total distance traveled by the particle. The
total distance traveled by a particle is the total length of the path of the particle when the
particle changes its direction of motion

Notes on Instantaneous velocity, Instantaneous speed, and acceleration functions

Instantaneous velocity function: The instantaneous velocity function v(t) is the rate of change
of position with respect to time. In other words, the velocity function is the time derivative of
the position function.

dx
The instantaneous Velocity function is given by v(t ) =
dt
If a particle moves along the y-axis or s-axis, then the velocity function is given by

dy ds
v(t ) = or
dt dt
The velocity function's absolute value gives the particle's instantaneous speed.

dx
The instantaneous speed function is given by v(t ) =
dt

The velocity function is a vector; it shows both how fast the particle is moving at a given time
and the direction of motion. The sign of the velocity indicates the direction of motion of the
particle.

Instantaneous acceleration function: In one-dimensional motion, acceleration function is

defined as the rate at which the instantaneous velocity of a particle changes with respect to
time. Thus, if a particle in rectilinear motion has velocity function v(t), then we define its
acceleration function to be,

dv d 2 x
The instantaneous acceleration function is a(t ) = =
dt dt 2
Cautionary Notes on speeding and slowing down: We will say that a particle in one-
dimensional motion is speeding up when its speed is increasing. and slows down when its
speed decreases. In everyday language, an object that is speeding up is said to be
“accelerating,” and an object that is slowing down is said to be “decelerating”; thus, one might
expect that a particle in rectilinear motion will be speeding up when its acceleration is positive
and slowing down when it is negative. Although this is true for a particle moving in the
positive direction, it is not true for a particle moving in the negative direction. A particle with
negative velocity speeds up when its acceleration is negative and slows down when its
acceleration is positive. This is because a positive

acceleration implies an increasing velocity, and increasing a negative velocity decreases Its
absolute value; similarly, a negative acceleration implies a decreasing velocity, and decreasing
a negative velocity increases its absolute value.