GENERAL PHYSICS I

K IN EM AT I CS - DE S CR I PTI ON O F M OT IO N
Food for Thought
Let’s Recall
•What is Mechanics?

•What are the three

subdivision of mechanics?
Both Mr Rabbit and Mr Tortoise took the same round trip, but
Mr Rabbit slept & returned later.
Who runs faster?

No, I travelled
Me, as I spent
less time on the longer distance every
trip. minute.

Comment on their their argument.

Speed,
Velocity and
Acceleration
MOTION
Learning Objectives

• Describe the motion of an object

• Differentiate distance from displacement;
speed from velocity; average speed from
instantaneous speed
• Calculate the speed/velocity and acceleration
of a moving body.
Motion
•a change in position
relative to a frame of
reference
Frames of Reference
• The object or point from which
movement is determined
• Movement is relative to an
object that appears stationary
• Earth is the most common
frame of reference
Is the passenger
moving or not
moving?
Keep in Mind
• All motion is relative to a reference.
• This means that we describe motion of an object
relative to some other object
• In our environment, the reference for motion is the
earth’s surface, and speeds are measured relative to
the earth
• The earth moves at 107,000 km/h relative to the sun
What are the quantities
used to describe the
motion of an object?
 Distance
Displacement
Speed
Velocity
Acceleration
Linear Motion
• Motion is easy to recognize but can be hard to describe
• The following quantities are used to describe motion:
speed, velocity and acceleration
• Each of these is a rate. A rate is a quantity divided by
time.
• Motion along a straight line is sometimes called linear
motion.
Distance and
Displacement
Distance and Displacement
• Distance is ( a scalar) the total path
length traversed by an object in
moving from one point to another.
• Displacement ( a vector) is the
separation of an object from a
reference point.
Velocity and Speed
• Speed refers to how quickly an object
moves (a scalar quantity).
• Velocity is defined as speed in a given
direction or rate of change of position
(displacement over time). v = d/t
Velocity and Speed
• Velocity refers to both the speed and direction
of motion of an object (a vector quantity).
• Negative velocity means the object is moving
in the opposite direction
• Motion at constant velocity means that both
the speed and direction of an object do not
change.
Average Speed
• Average speed is the average of all
instantaneous speeds; found simply by a total
distance/total time ratio
• The average speed of a trip:

total distance vi + vf
average speed  V = _________
elapsed time
2
Instantaneous Speed
• Instantaneous speed is speed at any instant in time.
• A speedometer measures speed in ‘real time’ (the
instantaneous speed).
Sample Problems
1. Luna watches a thunderstorm from her window. She
sees the flash of lightning bolt and begins counting
the seconds until she hears the clap of thunder 5.0
seconds later. Assume that the speed of sound in air
is 340 m/s and the light was seen instantaneously.
How far away was the lightning bolt?
2. How far does Bob run if he maintains an average
velocity of 3 m/s for 10 s?
Sample Problems
• 3. A ball rolls down a ramp for 15 seconds.  If the initial
velocity of the ball was 0.8 m/sec and the final velocity was
7 m/sec, what was the average velocity of the ball ?
4. A car starts from rest and attains a speed of 50m/s in 15
seconds. How far has the car traveled during 15s?
5. Manila is 155km from a town in Batangas if it takes a car 2
hours and 20 min to travel from manila to the town. What is
the total average speed of the car in m/s?
Sample Problem
• You are attending a seminar in
Cabanatuan City. Talavera is 15 km away
from Talavera. If it takes 35 minutes to
drive the car from Talavera to
Cabanatuan, at what speed in km/h you
should be driving?
•What happens when the
when the velocity in either
magnitude ( speed) or
direction of a moving
object change?
 Acceleration
• For its velocity to change, an object must accelerate.

• An object accelerates whenever its speed or direction or both

change.
• Acceleration may be positive (increasing speed) or negative
(decreasing speed).
• Negative acceleration is known as deceleration.

• Acceleration is a measure of how quickly the velocity changes:

a = Dv/t
vf - vi
change of velocity
acceleration  a = _________
time interval t
Sample Problems
1.A car starts from rest and attains a speed of 50 m/s in 15
seconds. What is the acceleration of the car?
2. The space shuttle releases a space telescope into orbit
around the earth. The telescope goes from being
stationary to traveling at a speed of 1700 m/s in 25
seconds. What is the acceleration of
the satellite?
3. A ball is rolled at a velocity of 12 m/sec.  After 36 seconds,
it comes to a stop.  What is the acceleration of the ball?
Sample Problems
4. Michael is
driving his sports car at 30 m/s when
he sees a dog on the road ahead. He slams on
the brakes and comes to a stop in 3.0 seconds.
What was the acceleration of Michael’s car?
5. A car going 50mph accelerates to pass a truck.
Five seconds later the car is going 80mph.
Calculate the acceleration of the car in m/s.
Do It Yourself
•A bicycle accelerates from
rest at 0.016 m/s2. How
long did it take the bicycle to
acquire a speed of 36 km/h?