The motion of objects can be shown with the help of

distance - time and speed – time graphs.

Object at rest (stationary object)

Object moving with constant speed

Object increasing its speed non - uniformly (accelerating)

Object decreasing its speed constantly

Object decreasing its speed non - uniformly (decelerating non

- uniformly)
Note:
The gradient of the distance-time graph represents the
speed of the object.
Example Question:
The graph shown below represents the distance traveled by
a car plotted against time.
(a) Describe the motion of the car between point A and E.
Between A and B, the speed of the car is increasing, between B and C
the car moves with constant speed, after that between C and D the
speed of the car decreases and between D and E,the car is at rest.

(b) How far has the car travelled at the end of 30seconds?
60 m

(c) Calculate the speed of the car between point B and C?

(e) What is the distance travelled between A and D?

(f)What is the average speed between A and D?

Object at rest (stationary object)

Object moving with constant speed

Object moving with uniform acceleration

Object moving with non - uniform acceleration

Object decelerating uniformly

Object decelerating non - uniformly

Note:
• The gradient of the speed-time graph is equal to
the acceleration of the object.
• the area under the speed-time graph represents
the distance traveled by the object.
Example question:
The speed – time graph below shows the motion of a
lorry.

(a) Describe the motion of the lorry.

First the lorry accelerates non – uniformly, then it moves
with uniform acceleration. After some time the speed of
lorry decreases and it moves with constant speed, finally the
lorry decelerates uniformly to the rest.
(b) Calculate the acceleration of the lorry between 2s and 4s.
a= 𝑣 −𝑢
= 30 −10
= 10 m/s²
𝑡 2

(c) Calculate distance travelled by the lorry between 5s and

7s.
A = l x b = 40 x 2 = 80m
Free fall
When an object is released near the surface of the Earth, it
falls under the influence of gravity. This is known as free fall.
§ The acceleration of free fall or acceleration due to gravity
is denoted by g.
§ The acceleration due to gravity is g=10 m/s2.
§ This is true in the absence of air resistance.

The experiment below shows that if all the air has been
removed from the tube, if both feather and lead ball are
dropped from the same height, both will reach the bottom of
the tube at the same time. This is because all objects in the
absence of air resistance, accelerates towards the earth at
same rate that is 10m/s2.
TERMINAL VELOCITY
When any object falls through air, due to the gravitational
force or weight the object will exerts a resistive force. This
resistive force increases as the object moves faster.
Resistive forces acts in an opposite direction to that which
the object is moving. And after some time the resistive
force and weight of the object becomes equals, so the
object moves with constant speed, this is known as
terminal velocity.

Consider a parachutist jumping from aircraft.

 Consider a parachutist jumping from
an aircraft.

When the parachutist jumps from the

aircraft, his speed increase downward due
to the weight of his body or gravitational
force

As his speed increases his air resistance

will also increase in the opposite
direction(upwards).

After sometime air resistance will be big

enough to balance the parachutist’s
weight. At this point the forces are
balanced so his speed becomes uniform -
this is called terminal velocity.

10 September 2022
 When he opens his parachute the air
resistance suddenly increases and the
speed decreases.

After some time again air resistance

decreases until it balances his weight.
The parachutist has now reached a
new, lower terminal velocity.

10 September 2022
 Speed-time graph of a parachutist is shown below…

Speed Parachute opens – diver

speed
decreasing slows down
Speed
increases…

Terminal
velocity
reached…

Time

New, lower terminal Diver hits the ground

velocity reached
10 September 2022