Chapter 2

Describing Motion: Kinematics

in One Dimension

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 • Displacement
• Average Velocity
• Instantaneous Velocity
• Acceleration
• Motion at Constant Acceleration
• Solving Problems
• Freely Falling Objects

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 We make a distinction between distance and
displacement.
Displacement (blue line) is how far the object is
from its starting point, regardless of how it got
there.
Distance traveled (dashed line) is measured
along the actual path.

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 A person walks 70 m east, then 30 m west. The total
distance traveled is 100 m but the displacement, shown as
a blue arrow, is 40 m to the east

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 The displacement is written:

Left: Right:
Displacement is positive. Displacement is negative.

The arrow represents the For the displacement Δx = x2 – x1 = 10.0 m –

displacement x2 – x1. Distances are in 30.0 m, the displacement vector points to the
meters. left.

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 Speed is how far an object travels in a given time
interval:

The total distance traveled along path divided by the time it takes to
travel this distance

Velocity includes directional information:

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 2-2 Average Velocity
Example 2-1: Runner’s average velocity.
The position of a runner as a function of
time is plotted as moving along the x axis of
a coordinate system. During a 3.00-s time
interval, the runner’s position changes from
x1 = 50.0 m to x2 = 30.5 m, as shown. What
was the runner’s average velocity?

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Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.
 Distance a cyclist travels.
How far can a cyclist travel in 2.5 h
along a straight road if her average
velocity is 18 km/h?

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 2-3 Instantaneous Velocity
The instantaneous velocity is the
average velocity in the limit as the time
interval becomes infinitesimally short.

Ideally, a speedometer would

measure instantaneous
velocity; in fact, it measures
average velocity, but over a
very short time interval.

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 2-4 Acceleration
Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity.

Average acceleration.

A car accelerates along a straight road from

rest to 75 km/h in 5.0 s. What is the magnitude
of its average acceleration?

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 2-4 Acceleration
Example 2-6: Car slowing down.
An automobile is moving to the right along a
straight highway, which we choose to be the
positive x axis. Then the driver puts on the
brakes. If the initial velocity (when the driver
hits the brakes) is v1 = 15.0 m/s, and it takes 5.0
s to slow down to v2 = 5.0 m/s, what was the
car’s average acceleration?

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 2-4 Acceleration
There is a difference between negative
acceleration and deceleration:
Negative acceleration is acceleration in the
negative direction as defined by the coordinate
system.
Deceleration means the magnitude of the
velocity is decreasing; it does not necessarily
mean a is negative.

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 Motion at Constant Acceleration

The average velocity of an object during a time

interval t is

The acceleration, assumed constant, is

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 2-5 Motion at Constant Acceleration

In addition, as the velocity is increasing at a

constant rate, we know that

Combining these last three equations, we find:

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 2-5 Motion at Constant Acceleration

We can also combine these equations so as to

eliminate t:

We now have all the equations we need to solve

constant-acceleration problems.

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 2-6 Solving Problems
Acceleration of a car.
How long does it take a car to cross a
30.0-m-wide intersection after the light turns
green, if the car accelerates from rest at a
constant 2.00 m/s2?

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 2-7 Freely Falling Objects
Near the surface of the Earth, all objects
experience approximately the same acceleration
due to gravity.
This is one of the most
common examples of motion
with constant acceleration.

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 2-7 Freely Falling Objects

In the absence of air

resistance, all objects
fall with the same
acceleration, although
this may be tricky to
tell by testing in an
environment where
there is air resistance.

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 2-7 Freely Falling Objects

The acceleration due to

gravity at the Earth’s
surface is approximately
9.80 m/s2. At a given
location on the Earth and
in the absence of air
resistance, all objects fall
with the same constant
acceleration.

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 2-7 Freely Falling Objects

Example 2-14: Falling from

a tower.
Suppose that a ball is
dropped (v0 = 0) from a
tower 70.0 m high. How far
will it have fallen after a
time t1 = 1.00 s, t2 = 2.00 s,
and t3 = 3.00 s? Ignore air
resistance.

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 Approach;
• Let us take y as positive downward
• We neglect any air resistance
• Thus the acceleration is a=g=+9.80
m/s2,which is +ve because we have chosen
downward as positive.
• We set v0 and y0 =0.

y = v0t + ½ at2

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 2-7 Freely Falling Objects
Example 2-15: Thrown down from a tower.
Suppose a ball is thrown downward with an
initial velocity of 3.00 m/s, instead of being
dropped. (a) What then would be its position
after 1.00 s and 2.00 s? (b) What would its speed
be after 1.00 s and 2.00 s? Compare with the
speeds of a dropped ball.

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Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.