Topic 2.

1 Motion
Velocity and Acceleration
Distance Displacement
Distance is a scalar quantity. It is a measure of Displacement is a vector quantity. It is a measure
the total length you have moved. of how far you are from the starting position.

If you complete a lap of an athletics track: distance travelled = 400m

displacement = 0
Distance and Displacement are measured in metres, m

Speed Velocity
Speed is a measure of how the distance changes Velocity is measure of how the displacement
with time. Since it is dependent on speed it too is changes with time. Since it depends on
a scalar. displacement it is a vector too.
d s
speed  v
t t
Speed and Velocity are is measured in metres per second, m/s
Time is measured in seconds, s
Acceleration
Acceleration is the rate at which the velocity changes. Since velocity is a vector quantity, so is acceleration.
With all vectors, the direction is important. In questions we decide which direction is positive (e.g.  +ve)
If a moving object has a positive velocity: * a positive acceleration means an increase in the velocity
* a negative acceleration means a decrease in the velocity
(it begins the ‘speed up’ in the other direction)
If a moving object has a negative velocity: * a positive acceleration means an increase in the velocity
(it begins the ‘speed up’ in the other direction)
* a negative acceleration means a increase in the velocity
If an object accelerates from a velocity of u to a velocity of v, and it takes t seconds to do it then we can write
(v  u ) v
the equations as a  it may also look like this a  where Δ means the ‘change in’
t t

Acceleration is measured in metres per second squared, m/s2

Uniform Acceleration
In this situation the acceleration is constant – the velocity changes by the same amount each unit of time.
For example: If acceleration is 2m/s2, this means the velocity increases by 2m/s every second.
Time (s) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Velocity (m/s) 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Acceleration (m/s2) 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Non-Uniform Acceleration
In this situation the acceleration is changing – the velocity changes by a different amount each unit of time.
For example:
Time (s) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Velocity (m/s) 0 2 6 10 18 28 30 44
Acceleration (m/s2) 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
 Equations of Motion

Defining Symbols
The following letters are assigned to represent each variable:
Displacement =s m metres
Initial Velocity =u m/s metres per second
Final Velocity =v m/s metres per second
Acceleration =a m/s2 metres per second per second
Time =t s seconds

Equations of Motion
Equation 1
(v  u )
If we start with the equation for acceleration a  we can rearrange this to give us an equation 1
t
at  (v  u )  at  u  v v  u  at

Equation 2
We start with the definition of velocity and rearrange for displacement
velocity = displacement / time  displacement = velocity x time

In situations like the graph to the right the velocity is constantly changing, we
need to use the average velocity.
displacement = average velocity x time
(u  v)
The average velocity is give by: average velocity =
2
We now substitute this into the equation above for displacement
(u  v) (u  v)
displacement = x time  s  t s  12 (u  v)t
2 2

Equation 3
With Equations 1 and 2 we can derive an equation which eliminated v. To do this we simply substitute
v  u  at into s  12 (u  v)t
s  12 (u  (u  at ))t  s  12 (2u  at )t  s  12 (2ut  at 2 ) s  ut  12 at 2

This can also be found if we remember that the area under a velocity-time graph represents the distance
travelled/displacement. The area under the line equals the area of rectangle A + the area of triangle B.
(v  u )
Area = Displacement = s = ut  12 (v  u )t since a  then at  (v  u ) so the equation becomes
t
s  ut  12 (at )t which then becomes equation 3

Equation 4
(v  u )
If we rearrange equation 1 into t  which we will then substitute into equation 2:
a
(v  u )
s  12 (u  v)t  s  12 (u  v)  as  12 (u  v)(v  u ) 
a
2as  (v 2  uv  uv  u 2 )  2as  v 2  u 2 v 2  u 2  2as

Any question can be solved as long as three of the variables are given in the question.
Write down all the variables you have and the one you are asked to find, then see which equation you can use.

These equations can only be used for motion with UNIFORM ACCELERATION.
 Motion graphs
In motion graphs, we often use the gradient of a line and the area under a line to find values of quantities.
Gradient
We calculate the gradient by choosing two points on the line and calculating the change in the y axis (up/down)
and the change in the x axis (across). y
gradient 
Area under graph x
In IB Physics, we will not be asked to calculate the area under curves, only straight lines.
We do this be breaking the area into rectangles (base x height) and triangles (½ base x height).
Displacement-time graphs

A B C
Graph A shows that the displacement stays at 3m, it is stationary.
Graph B shows that the displacement increases by the same amount each second, it is travelling with constant
velocity.
Graph C shows that the displacement covered each second increases each second, it is accelerating.
y s
Since gradient  and y = displacement and x = time  gradient   gradient  velocity
x t
Velocity- time graphs

A B C
Graph A shows that the velocity stays at 4m/s, it is moving with constant velocity.
Graph B shows that the velocity increases by the same amount each second, it is accelerating by the same
amount each second (uniform acceleration).
Graph C shows that the velocity increases by a larger amount each second, the acceleration is increasing (non-
uniform acceleration).
y v
Since gradient  and y = velocity and x = time  gradient   gradient  acceleration
x t
area = base x height  area = time x velocity  area = displacement

This graph show the velocity decreasing in one direction and increasing in
the opposite direction.
If we decide that is negative and is positive then the graph tells us:
The object is initially travels at 5 m/s 
It slows down by 1m/s every second
After 5 seconds the object has stopped
It then begins to move 
It gains 1m/s every second until it is travelling at 5m/s 
 Terminal Velocity and Projectiles
Acceleration Due To Gravity
An object that falls freely will accelerate towards the Earth because of the force of gravity acting on it.
The size of this acceleration does not depend mass, so a feather and a bowling ball accelerate at the same rate.
On the Moon they hit the ground at the same time, on Earth the resistance of the air slows the feather more
than the bowling ball.
The size of the gravitational field affects the magnitude of the acceleration. Near the surface of the Earth the
gravitational field strength is 9.81 N/kg. This is also the acceleration a free falling object would have on Earth. In
the equations of motion a = g = 9.81 m/s.
Mass is a property that tells us how much matter it is made of.
Mass is measured in kilograms, kg
Weight is a force caused by gravity acting on a mass:
weight = mass x gravitational field strength w  mg
Weight is measured in Newtons, N
Terminal Velocity
If an object is pushed out of a plane it will
accelerate towards the ground because of its
weight (due to the Earth’s gravity). Its velocity will
increase as it falls but as it does, so does the drag
forces acting on the object (air resistance).
Eventually the air resistance will balance the
weight of the object. This means there will be no
overall force which means there will be no
acceleration. The object stops accelerating and
has reached its terminal velocity.

Projectiles
An object kicked or thrown into the air will follow a
parabolic path like that shown to the right.
If the object had an initial velocity of u, this can be
resolved into its horizontal and vertical velocity (as
we have seen in Lesson 2)
The horizontal velocity will be ucos and the vertical velocity will be usin. With these we can solve projectile
questions using the equations of motion we already know.

Horizontal and Vertical Motion

The diagram shows two balls that are released at the same time, one is released and the other has a horizontal
velocity. We see that the ball shot from the cannon falls at the same rate at the ball that was released. This is
because the horizontal and vertical components of motion are independent of each other.

Horizontal: The horizontal velocity is constant; we see that

the fired ball covers the same horizontal (across) distance
with each second.
Vertical: The vertical velocity accelerates at a rate of g
(9.81m/s2). We can see this more clearly in the released ball;
it covers more distance each second.

The horizontal velocity has no affect on the vertical velocity. If

a ball were fired from the cannon at a high horizontal velocity
it would travel further, but still take the same time to reach
the ground.