edexcel igcse (9-1)

physics
unit 1:forces & motion
(mechanics)
lecture notes & practice
Chapter 1: Movement & Position
Equations of Uniformly accelerated motion (SUVAT equations):
The list below shows the symbols assigned for quantities in motion that will be used in equations of motion:
• displacement/distance: s
• initial velocity/speed: u
• final velocity/speed: v
• acceleration/deceleration: a
• time: t
Consider the following scenario:
A school bus picks up a student from her house and sets off for towards her school. On the way the school,
the bus stops at a filling station (petrol pump).
The total distance between the student’s house and her school is 2.8 km (2.8 x 1000 = 2800 m).
It takes a 30 minutes (30 x 60 = 1800 seconds) for the bus to complete the journey.
If you are asked to find the the bus’s speed for the journey, you impulsively recall the equation speed = total
distance/total time. If you actually calculate the speed, it is around 1.6 m/s (2800 m / 1800 s = 1.56 m/s ~ 1.6
m/s).
Now think carefully: did the bus travel at this speed throughout its entire journey?
NO! It had stopped at the filling station or it might have also stopped at the traffic signal.
What speed is this?
The average (mean) speed.
Whenever you use the equation speed = distance/time, it always gives you the average speed.
Now if you wanted to calculate the speed of the bus when it was crossing a lamp-post, what equation would
you use?
Certainly not the speed = distance/time!

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 You would need to use an equation of uniformly accelerated motion.
Speed = distance/time can only be used to find the constant speed or the average speed.
Speed/velocity at a certain instant, i.e., the instantaneous speed cannot be found out by that equation if the
body is accelerating or decelerating.
For a body that is accelerating and/or decelerating, we use these equations to find acceleration, velocity,
time & distance:
• a = (v - u)/t => v = u +at
• v2 = u2 + 2as
• s = (u + v)t
2
• s = ut + 1at2
2
Which equation you would choose depends on the information given in the question. Let’s take a look:
Example 1: A car starts from rest and accelerates uniformly until it reaches a speed of 25 m/s in 5 s.
Calculate the value of the constant acceleration of the car.

*When an object falls freely (under gravity), the acceleration due to gravity is always 10m/s2.
Example 2: Sir Isaac Newton came up with the theory of gravity when an apple apparently fell from the
tree on his head.
The apple falls freely from rest through a height of 1.5 m above Newton’s head.
Calculate the final velocity with which it hit’s his head.

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Graphs:

Graphs serve two purposes in physics & mathematics.

• Quantity vs Quantity graphs represent the relationship between two quantities.

These include force – extension or voltage – current graphs.

(i) Graph starts from the origin (0, 0). (i) Graph does not start from the origin (0, 0).
(ii) Graph is a straight line. (ii) Graph is a curve.
(iii) The curve is downwards.

The two quantities are directly proportional. The two quantities are inversely proportional.
• Quantity vs time graphs show how a specific quantity changes with time.
While dealing with quantity – time graphs, two factors have to be taken into consideration:
1. How the quantity is changing with time (rate of change of the quantity)
2. How the rate is changing with time (pattern of the rate of change)
The following are some common graph shapes that apply to almost any situation, not just motion.
Simple Quantity vs time graphs: *For a quantity – time graph, the gradient represents the
rate of change (change with time).

e Constant positive slope/gradient: the rate of change is equal & positive

lop everywhere on the graph.
ings
as Constant positive gradient = steady/uniform rate of increase
re
inc • For an s-t graph: constant speed going forwards (constant positive
d ily
ea velocity)
st
• For a v-t graph: object accelerating steadily (uniformly)

Quantity
Constant negative slope/gradient: the rate of change is equal & negative
everywhere on the graph.
Constant negative gradient = steady/uniform rate of decrease
ste
ad

• For an s-t graph: constant speed going backwards (constant

ily

negative velocity)
de
cr
ea

• For a v-t graph: object decelerating steadily/uniformly

sin
g
slo
pe

Time

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 Zero gradient: the rate of change is zero - there is no change with time.
The graph is horizontal.
zero gradient • For an s-t graph: object at rest (not moving)
• For a v-t graph: object moving with a constant (uniform/steady) speed/
velocity

** Advanced concepts of Quantity vs time graphs:

**Increasing gradient (version 1): the rate of change gradually increases and
becomes higher - increases at an increasing rate.
p

The graph is shallower at the beginning but then gets steeper.

stee

• For an s-t graph: Speed increasing (Acceleration)

• For a v-t graph: Accelerating at an increasing rate

llow
sha

low **Increasing gradient (version 2): the rate of change gradually increases
shal
and becomes lower - increases at an decreasing rate.

The graph is steeper at the beginning but then gets shallower.

• For an s-t graph: Speed decreasing (Deceleration)
• For a v-t graph: Accelerating at a decreasing rate
p
stee

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Quantity
**Decreasing gradient (version 1): the rate of change gradually decreases
sha and becomes higher - decreases at an increasing rate.
llow
The graph is shallower at the beginning but then gets steeper.
• For a v-t graph: decelerating at an increasing rate

ste
ep

Time

Quantity
**Decreasing gradient (version 2): the rate of change gradually decreases
and becomes lower - decreases at an decreasing rate.
The graph is steeper at the beginning but then gets shallower.
ste

• For an v-t graph: decelerating at a decreasing rate

ep

sha
llow

Time

Motion Graphs
● Gradient of a distance - time graph = speed.
● Gradient of a displacement - time graph = velocity (speed in a given direction).
● Gradient of a velocity - time graph = acceleration/deceleration.
● Gradient of a Speed - time graph = Rate of increase/decrease of speed.
● The area under the velocity - time graph and a speed - time graph gives the distance traveled

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Page 6
constant deceleration
constant acceleration

co of v
ns -t
ta gr
nt ap
con
s
ne h
ga = u
of v tant p
o
tiv ni
-t g
rap sitive
e g for
h= g
ra md
uni radie
di ec
form nt
en e
t ler
at acc
ion eler
atio
n
Motion graphs for uniform deceleration (e.g., objects rising freely):
Motion graphs for uniform/constant acceleration (e.g., objects falling freely):

gra
inc dient gra
= v reasin of an inc dient
elo g = v reasin of an
city at a s-t gr
inc dec aph
elo g
city at a s-t gr
rea rea inc n in aph
sin sin
gs g rea cre
sin asin
tea rate gs
dily tea g rate
dily
Relevant questions from past paper:

1. Some students investigate the speed of cars. They measure the time it takes each car to travel a distance of 80
m.
(a) State two measuring instruments the students should use. (2)

(b) The table shows some of their results.

(i) State the colour of the slowest car. (1)

(ii) Calculate the speed of the black car. (2)

(iii) 20 miles per hour is approximately 9 m/s. Estimate the speed, in miles per hour, of the black car. (1)

(c) The distance-time graph for another car is shown below.

Describe what the graph shows about the speed of the car as it travels the 80 m. (2)

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 2. The photograph shows the beginning of a 100 m race.

David wins the race. The graph shows David’s distance-time graph.
(a) Use the graph to find the distance David ran in the first 4 s. (1)

(b) David runs 100 m in a time of 9.80 s. Calculate his average speed. State the unit. (3)

(c) Explain why David’s average speed is less than his top speed. (2)

(1)

(1)

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Homework:

3. (a) A car driver sees a rabbit on the road. The driver makes an emergency stop after she sees the rabbit.
The figure shows the speed of the car from the time the driver sees the rabbit until the car stops.

(i) The distance travelled by the car from the time the driver first sees the rabbit to when car starts to slow
down is the (1)

(ii) Calculate the distance that the car travels in 2.5 seconds. (3)

(iii) calculate the average speed of the car (2)

(b) Two students, Alice and Bob, carry out an experiment to measure the speed of cars. Alice paces out the
distance between two lamp posts. She records: ‘Distance between lamp posts = 20 paces’ Bob starts to count
when a car passes the first lamp post. He stops counting when he thinks it has passed the second lamp
post. He records: ‘My estimate for the time taken for the car to pass between the two lamp posts = 3’
Give three ways the students could improve their experimental procedure. (3)

.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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 Chapter 3: Forces & movement
Effects of a force on motion:
1. An object only accelerates or decelerates when a resultant force (unbalanced force) acts on it.
2. An object accelerates when the resultant force acts in the same direction as its motion.
3. An object decelerates when the resultant force acts in the opposite direction to its motion.
4. Resultant force is the net effect of one or more forces acting on an object in the same or in the opposite
direction.
5. If only one force acts on an object, that force is the resultant force. For instance, for a freely falling object,
the only force acting on it is its weight and therefore the resultant force on this object is equal to its
weight.
Types of forces:
1. Contact forces - Examples of contact forces include friction, air resistance, normal reaction force, thrust,
upthrust, etc.
2. Non contact forces - Examples of non contact forces include magnetic force, gravitational force,
electrostatic force etc.

Assessing Resultant force:

Scenario 1
Even if one of these forces are removed,
the other can still create motion.
Since the resultant force becomes zero
due to opposite forces, the object
remains at rest.
Scenario 2
The opposing force does not have the ability to
create motion, so it cannot stop the motion but
can make the object decelerate and eventually
come to rest if no other forces are acting on the
object.
Thus, the object moves with a constant velocity.

From these scenarios, it can be concluded that when the resultant force acting on an object is zero,
the object either remains at rest or moves with a constant velocity.
• If the resultant force becomes zero because of an opposing force, the object moves with a
constant velocity.

• If the resultant force becomes zero because of opposite forces, the object remains at rest.
Air Resistance:
Air resistance in an opposing force and always act in the opposite direction to the motion. There
are two factors that determine the value of air resistance:
1. Speed
2. Surface Area
If either speed or surface area increases, the air resistance will also increase.

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Analysing the motion of a skydiver before and after opening a parachute:
The graph below shows how the velocity of a
parachutist changes until he opens the parachute
X at point X as well as how his velocity changes
after he opens the parachute.

• Description upto point X

The parachutist starts from rest and the velocity gradually increases at a decreasing rate. After
a certain time, the acceleration becomes zero as the graph at point X becomes horizontal. The
parachutist has a constant velocity at point X [The parachutist reaches a constant velocity
called terminal velocity].
• Explanation upto point X
When the parachutist just starts to fall, he initially accelerates because the weight is initially greater
than the air resistance. The resultant force acting on him is downward and since his motion is also
downward, therefore he accelerates.
As the parachutist initially accelerates, his speed increases and the air resistance acting on him also
increases. At one point, the air resistance becomes equal to the weight. The resultant force acting
on him becomes zero. Therefore, the acceleration also becomes zero and the parachutist reaches a
constant velocity at point X.
At point X, the parachutist opens the parachute.

• Description after point X

The velocity decreases at a decreasing rate. At one point, the acceleration becomes zero and
the velocity becomes constant.
• Explanation after point X
At X, when the parachute is opened, the surface area drastically increases and the air resistance also
increases. After point X, the air resistance is initially greater than the weight. The resultant force is
now upward but the direction of motion is downward. Hence, the parachutist decelerates. As the
parachutist decelerates, the speed decreases and so does the air resistance.
At one point, the air resistance becomes equal to the weight, the resultant force becomes zero, the
acceleration also becomes zero and therefore the parachutist reaches a final constant velocity (the
parachutist reaches a final smaller terminal velocity).

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 Summary of the scenarios:
Upto point X:
• Initially, the weight is greater than the air
resistance.
• The resultant force is downwards &
therefore causes the skydiver to accelerate
at a uniform rate.
• As the speed increases, the air resistance
increases, causing the resultant force to
decrease & the rate of acceleration
decreases.
• Air resistance eventually becomes equal to
weight.
• The forces on the skydiver are balanced, so
the resultant force becomes zero & the
skydiver reaches the first constant (terminal)
velocity.
Upto point X, the velocity increases but after point X, the velocity decreases. Therefore, upto point X,
the person accelerates and after point X, the person decelerates.
After point X:
• Initially, air resistance is greater than the
weight due to the larger surface area of
the open parachute.
• The resultant force is now acting upwards
(in the direction opposite to the skydiver's
motion), so the skydiver decelerates
uniformly.
• As the speed of the skydiver decreases, air
resistance decreases, the resultant force
acting upwards decreases, so the
deceleration decreases.
• Eventually, air resistance becomes equal
to weight once again, making the forces
acting on the skydiver balanced once
again.
• The resultant force is zero again, so the
skydiver reaches his final terminal
velocity, which has a lower value than the
previous terminal velocity.

In either scenarios, the acceleration decreases because in either scenarios, the resultant force
decreases.

Modeling Terminal Velocity:

In real life, for an object to reach terminal velocity, it must fall through a very large distance. Such
large distances are almost impossible to attain in a laboratory to demonstrate terminal velocity.
Therefore in school labs, if we want to demonstrate terminal velocity, we use a liquid (such as water)
instead of air. This is because the opposing force acting on an object in a liquid is much greater than
the opposing force acting on the same object in air. This is why an object reaches terminal velocity
much faster in liquids after falling a much smaller distance.

The graphs below show how the velocity of an object changes as it falls through a liquid as well as
through air:

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Assessing motion using light gates:
A light gate is a device that can automatically calculate the velocity/acceleration of an object.
Light gates consist of a light transmitter in line with a detector. When an object passes through the light gate,
the time through which the light from the transmitter did not reach the receiver is automatically measured.
The length of the object must be known. This is illustrated in the diagram below:

The instantaneous velocity, v is given by: v = x

t
where x is the length of the card and t is the time
taken for the card to cross the light gate.
To find the acceleration, an initial and a final velocity
are needed. So, two light gates are needed.

Motion in context:
When the driver of a vehicle decides to apply the brakes, some time elapses while the driver is making up
his mind that is reacting to the situation. This time is called the reaction time.
The distance that the vehicle travels during this time is called thinking distance.
After the brakes are applied, the vehicle travels a certain distance before coming to rest. This distance is
called the braking distance.
The total distance that the vehicle travels from the instant that the driver decides to brake until the car
comes to rest is called the stopping distance.
Therefore, stopping distance = thinking distance + braking distance.
Factors that affect thinking distance:
1. Mental condition of the driver that is whether the driver is under the influence of drugs, alcohol or
medicine that causes dizziness.
2. Visibility
Factors That affect the Braking Distance:
1. Road conditions - dry or wet
2. Condition of the brakes - working or worn out
3. Condition of the tyres - new tread or old, properly inflated or not
4. Speed of the vehicle
5. Mass of the vehicle
6. Braking force
Mathematical example:
Question: The driver of a car traveling at 20 m/s sees a pedestrian 60m ahead of him. He decides to
apply the brakes. If his reaction time is 0.8 s:
(a) Calculate the thinking distance for the car
Ans: Thinking distance = speed x time = 20 m/s x 0.8 s = 16 m

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 b) If the car comes to rest in 4 s after the brakes are applied, sketch a velocity-time graph for the motion
of the car.
Ans:
• The area of the horizontally shaded region gives the thinking
distance.
• The area of the vertically shaded region gives the braking
distance.
• If the driver is drunk, the area of the horizontally shaded
region will increase.
• If the car was being driven on a slippery road, the area of the
vertically shaded region will increase.

c) Hence, determine from the graph whether the car will hit or miss the pedestrian.

1
Ans: Area under the graph = 1 (a + b)h → (0.8 + 4.8) × 20 = 56 m. So, The driver will miss the pedestrian.
2 2
Relationship between resultant force, mass & acceleration:
The equation that links these quantities is given by: F = m x a.
Whenever the relationship between two quantities is to be determined, all other quantities must
be kept constant.
Relationship between resultant force & acceleration:
The relationship between resultant force and acceleration can be determined by using the
apparatus below:

To determine the relationship between resultant force and

acceleration, the mass must be kept constant. If the mass is kept
constant and the resultant force is gradually increased, the
acceleration also increases.
If a graph of force against acceleration is plotted with several
values of force and acceleration, it would look like the one shown
on the left.

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Relationship between mass & acceleration:
To determine the relationship between mass and acceleration, the force must be kept constant.
For a constant force, if the mass is gradually increased, the acceleration decreases. If a graph of acceleration
against mass is plotted with several values of mass and acceleration, it would look like the one shown below:
Between mass and acceleration, acceleration is the
dependent variable and mass is the independent
variable. This means that acceleration depends on the
mass.

Chapter 2: Forces & Shape

• When a force is applied on a material, the material undergoes deformation.
• Deformation can be of two types; elastic deformation and plastic deformation

• When a material returns to its original shape/position when the force on it is removed, it is called
elastic deformation.
Materials that exhibit elastic behavior are called elastic materials. Examples of elastic materials
include rubber, spring etc.
• When a material does not return to its original shape/position even when the force on it is removed, it
is called permanent/plastic deformation.
Materials that exhibit permanent/plastic deformation are called inelastic materials. Examples of
inelastic material include plastic, copper, steel etc.
✴ An elastic material will eventually undergo permanent deformation once the force on it exceeds a
certain value.
✴ A material that exhibits elastic behavior does not necessarily have to obey Hooke’s law. For instance,
rubber bands behave elastically but do not obey Hooke’s law. However, springs behave elastically and
also obey Hooke’s law.
Hooke's Law:

Hooke’s law states that the applied force is directly proportional to the extension provided that the elastic
limit is not exceeded.

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 The graphs beside show how force varies with extension for 3
different materials A, B and C.

All three materials obey Hooke’s law because the graphs for all
3 materials are straight lines and pass through the origin.

If more masses are added and if a graph for force against extension is plotted, it will be seen that the
graph does not remain straight after a certain point as shown in the diagram below:
The point upto which the material obeys Hooke’s law / the graph is
a straight line / the force is directly proportional to extension is
called the limit of proportionality.

Assessing F against x graphs:

1. The gradient of the F vs x graph gives the stiffness of a material.

↑ STEEPNESS ↔ ↑ GRADIENT ↔ ↑ STIFFNESS

↓ STEEPNESS ↔↓ GRADIENT ↔↓ STIFFNESS

2. The area under the F-x graph gives the energy stored in a stretched or compressed material. This energy
is called the elastic potential energy.
The graphs to the left how how force varies with extension
for two material A and B.
A is more stiff than B because the graph for A is more steep
than the graph for B.

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Comparing F-x graphs for Springs & Rubber Bands:
The graph above shows the loading and unloading
for a spring.
The graph above shows the loading and
unloading for a rubber band.
For a spring, the loading and the unloading graphs
are identical.
The area under the F-x graph gives the elastic
potential (stored or transferred).
For a spring, the energy stored during the loading
process = the energy transferred during the
unloading process.
Since the two energies are equal, the areas under
both the graphs would be same as well.
For a rubber band, it is seen that the area under the
loading graph is greater than the area under the
unloading graph.
Since the area under the F-x graph gives the elastic
potential energy (stored or transferred) for a rubber band,
the energy stored during the loading process is not equal
to the energy transferred during the unloading process.
Some of the energy is converted to heat/thermal energy.
This is why it is seen that the temperature of a rubber
band increases after loading and unloading several times.
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