Accelerated motion

Method
Step 1 Choose the axis (Oxy, 1 axis usually parallels with the motion)
Step 2 Draw vectors to describe quantities 𝒗 = 𝒖 + 𝒂𝒕
- Displacement: from initial point to final point 𝒗+𝒖
- Velocity: along the direction of motion 𝒔= 𝒕
𝟐
- Acceleration: 𝟏
 accelerated motion (speed ↑): a ↑↑ v 𝒔 = 𝒖𝒕 + 𝒂𝒕𝟐
𝟐
 decelerated motion (speed ↓): a ↑↓ v
𝒗𝟐 − 𝒖𝟐 = 𝟐𝒂𝒔
Step 3 Take the sign of s, v and a: 𝒗+𝒖 𝒔
𝒗𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒆 = =
- ↑↑ (+): >0 𝟐 𝒕
- ↑↓ (+): <0

Key Pharse Hiden variable

quantity

Initially at rest u=0

Stops v=0

Constant velocity a=0

Returns to its starting point ∆s = xf - xi = 0

Dropped, thrown, or falls g = 9.8 ms-2

Dropped u=0

Maximum height v=0

Constant velocity
Level 1
1. At an average speed of 24 kmh-1. How many kilometers will a cyclist travel in 75 mins?
2. An aircraft travels 1600 km in 2.5 hours.What is its average speed, in ms -1?
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3. An aircraft travels 1400 km at a speed of 700 kmh -1, and then runs into a headwind that
reduce its speed over the ground to 500 kmh-1 for the next 800km. What is the total time for
the flight? What is the average speed of the aircraft?
Acceleration
Level 1
1. A sport car accelerated along straight test track from rest to 70kmh -1 in 6.3s. What is its
average acceleration?
2. A sprinter, starting from the blocks, reaches his full speed of 9.0ms-1 in 1.5s.
a What is his average acceleration?
b Calculate the accelerating distance in this time interval.
3. A rairway train, travelling along a straight track, takes 1.5minutes to come to rest from a
speed of 115kmh-1. What is its average acceleration while braking? Calculate the total distance
of this decelerating process.
4. A car is travelling at a speed of 25 ms-1. At this speed, it is capable of accelerating at 1.8 ms-
2
. How long would it take to accelerate from 25 ms-1 to the limit of 31 ms-1?
5. The average acceleration of a sprinter from the time of leaving the blocks to reaching her
maximum speed of 9.0 ms-1 is 6.0 ms-2. For how long does she accelerate? What distance does
she cover in this time?
Level 2
1. Traffic police can estimate the speed of vehicles involved in accidents by the length of the
marks made by skidding tyres on the road surface. It is known that the maximum deceleration
that a car can attain when braking on a normal road surface is about 9 ms-2. In one accident,
the tyre-marks were found to be 125 m long. Estimate the speed of the car before braking.
2. An airline must reach a speed of 110 ms-1 to take off. If the available length of the runway
is 2.4 km and the aircraft accelerates uniformly from rest at one end, what minimum
acceleration must be available if it is to take off?
3. A speeding motorist pass a traffic police officer on a stationary motocycle. The police officer
immediately gives chase: his uniform acceleration is 4.0 ms -2, and by the time he draws level
with the motorist he is travelling at 30 ms-1. How long does it take for the police officer to
catch the car? If the car continue to travel at a steady speed during the chase, what is that
speed?
4. ** A student, standing on the platform at a railway station, notice that the first two carriages
of an arriving train pass her in 2.0s and the next two in 2.4s. The train is decelerating uniformly.
Each carriage is 20m long. When the train stops, the student is opposite the lass carriage. How
many carriages are there in the train?
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 Motion under gravity (freefall; projectile motion)
Projectile motion
𝒗𝒙 = 𝒖𝒙 = 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕
𝒙 = 𝒖𝒙 𝒕
𝒗𝒚 = 𝒖𝒚 − 𝒈𝒕
𝟏
𝒚 = 𝒖𝒚 𝒕 − 𝒈𝒕𝟐
𝟐
𝒖𝒚
- Time taken: 𝐭 = 𝟐
𝒈
𝒖𝟐𝒚
- 𝑯𝒎𝒂𝒙 =
𝟐𝒈
- 𝑹 = 𝒖𝒙 𝒙 𝒕
- 𝒗 = √𝒗𝟐𝒙 + 𝒗𝟐𝒚

Horizontal initial velocity θ = 00

Vertical initial velocity θ = 900 𝒗𝒙 = 𝒖 = 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕 Freefall: θ = 00; u=0
𝒙 = 𝒖𝒕
𝒗𝒚 = 𝒖 − 𝒈𝒕 𝒗𝒚 = 𝒈𝒕
𝒗𝒚 = 𝒈𝒕
Main 𝟏 𝟏 𝟐
𝒔 = 𝒚equation
= 𝒖𝒕 − 𝒈𝒕𝟐 𝟏 𝒔=𝒚= 𝒈𝒕
𝟐 𝒔 = 𝒚 = 𝒈𝒕𝟐 𝟐
Time taken (come back to 𝟐
𝒖 𝟐𝒉
initial point): 𝐭 = 𝟐 𝟐𝒉 Time taken 𝐭 = √𝒈
𝒈 - Time taken 𝐭 = √𝒈
𝒖𝟐
- 𝑯𝒎𝒂𝒙 = Speed at the ground: 𝒗 = √𝟐𝒈𝒉
𝟐𝒈 𝟐𝒉
- 𝑹 = 𝒖 𝒙 𝒕 = 𝒖√ 𝒈
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Level 1
1. If a raindrop were to fall from the heigh of 1 km, with what velocity would it hit the ground
if there were no air resistance?
2. A cricketer throws a ball vertically upward into the air with an initial velocity of 18.0 ms -1.
How high does the ball go? How long is it before it return to
the cricketer’s hand
3. A stone is thrown from the top of a vertical cliff, 45m high
above level ground, with an initial velocity of 15 ms -1 in a
horizontal direction. How long does it take to reach the
ground? How far from the base of the cliff is it when it reaches
the ground?
4. A ball is thrown horizontally from the top of a tower 30 m high
and lands 15 m from its base. What is the ball’s initial speed?
5. A football is kicked on the level ground at a velocity of 15 ms-1
at an angle of 300 to the horizontal. How far away is the first
bounce?
Level 2
1. A cricket ball is thrown vertically upward with a speed of 15.0 ms-1. Choose the axis upward
a Write the equation to describe the motion.
b What is the height of the ball 1s and 2s after release?
c What is its velocity when it first passes through a point 8.0m above the cricketer’s hand?
2. An athlete competing in the long jump leaves the ground at an angle of 28 0 and makes a
jump of 7.4m
a Calculate the speed at which the athlete took off
b If the athlete had been able to increase this speed by 5%, what percentage difference would
this have made to the length of the jump
3. A ball to be kicked so that, at the highest point of its path, it just clears a horizontal cross-
bar on a pair of goal-posts. The ground is level and the cross-bar is 2.5 m high. The ball is
kicked from the ground level with an initial speed of 8.0 ms-1.
a Calculate the angle of projection of the ball and the distance of the point where the ball was
kicked from the goal-line
b Also calculate the horizontal velocity of the ball as it passes over the cross-bar.
c For how long is the ball in the air before it reaches the ground on the far side of the cross-
bar?

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4. A ball is thrown with a horizontal speed of 8.2 ms-1.
The side of the building is vertical. At point P on the path
of the ball, the ball is distance x from the building and is
moving at an angle of 600 to the horizontal. Air resistance
is negligible.
a For the ball at point P,
i show that the vertical component of its velocity is
14.2 ms-1
ii determine the vertical distance through which the
ball has fallen
iii determine the horizontal distance x
b The path of the ball in a, with an initial horizontal
speed of 8.2 ms-1, is show in Fig2. On a copy of Fig2,
sketch the new path of the ball for the ball having an
initial horizontal speed
i greater than 8.2 ms-1 and with negligible air
resistance (label this path G)
ii equal to 8.2 ms-1 but with air resistance (label this
path A)

Graph of the kinematic equations

Graph slope area y-intercept x-intercept
Displacement/time Velocity Initial position x=0
s-t ; x-t Steeper line
→ larger v
𝑠2 − 𝑠1
𝑣=
𝑡2 − 𝑡1
Velocity/time Acceleration Displacement Initial velocity v =0
v-t Steeper line (change in
→ larger a position)
𝑣2 − 𝑣1
𝑎=
𝑡2 − 𝑡1

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Level 1
1. The change in velocity of a moving object can be
recorded by the graph:
a Calculate acceleration at t = 4s
b Calculate the change in displacement in time
interval of 5s
Level 2
2. The graph represents the motion of two cars, A
and B, as they move along a straight, horizontal
road.
a Describe the motion of each car as shown on the
graph.
b Calculate the distance travelled by each car
during the first 5.0 s.
c At time t = 0, the two cars are level. Explain why
car A is at its maximum distance ahead of B at t =
2.5 s
d Determine the time when they across each other.

3. An experiment is conducted on the surface of the planet Mars. A sphere of mass 0.78 kg is
projected almost vertically upwards from the surface of the planet. The variation with time t
of the vertical velocity in the upwards direction is shown in the figure. The sphere lands on the
small hill at t = 4s.
a State the time when the sphere reaches the
maximum height compare with the surface of the
planet. Calculate this value of this height.
b Determine the vertical height above the point of
projection at which the sphere finally comes to
rest on the hill