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    Lecture 03

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    Saadi Mirza
    1. The derivative of a function shows how fast it is changing with respect to its input variable. For position x as a function of time t, the derivative dx/dt gives the instantaneous velocity. 2. The derivative of a position function x(t) is defined as the limit of the change in x over a small change in t. 3. For a position function with constant acceleration, like x(t) = 1/2at^2, taking the derivative gives the velocity function, showing that the acceleration is constant.

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    Lecture 03

    Uploaded by

    Saadi Mirza
    36 views2 pages
    1. The derivative of a function shows how fast it is changing with respect to its input variable. For position x as a function of time t, the derivative dx/dt gives the instantaneous velocity. 2. The derivative of a position function x(t) is defined as the limit of the change in x over a small change in t. 3. For a position function with constant acceleration, like x(t) = 1/2at^2, taking the derivative gives the velocity function, showing that the acceleration is constant.

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    1. The derivative of a function shows how fast it is changing with respect to its input variable. For position x as a function of time t, the derivative dx/dt gives the instantaneous velocity. 2. The derivative of a position function x(t) is defined as the limit of the change in x over a small change in t. 3. For a position function with constant acceleration, like x(t) = 1/2at^2, taking the derivative gives the velocity function, showing that the acceleration is constant.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    36 views2 pages

    Lecture 03

    Uploaded by

    Saadi Mirza
    1. The derivative of a function shows how fast it is changing with respect to its input variable. For position x as a function of time t, the derivative dx/dt gives the instantaneous velocity. 2. The derivative of a position function x(t) is defined as the limit of the change in x over a small change in t. 3. For a position function with constant acceleration, like x(t) = 1/2at^2, taking the derivative gives the velocity function, showing that the acceleration is constant.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    PHYSICS –PHY101 VU

    Summary of Lecture 3 – KINEMATICS II

    1. The concept of the derivative of a function is exceedingly important. The derivative shows
    how fast a function changes when its argument is changed. (Remember that for f ( x ) we
    say that f is a function that depends upon the argument x. You should think of f as a
    machine that gives you the value f when you input x.)

    2. Functions do not always have to be written as f ( x). x(t ) is also a function. It tells
    us where a body is at different times t.

    3. The derivative of x (t ) at time t is defined as:


    dx Δx
    ≡ lim
    dt Δt → 0 Δt
    x(t + Δt ) − x(t )
    = lim .
    Δt → 0 Δt

    Δx

    Δt

    4. Let's see how to calculate the derivative of a simple function like x(t ) = t 2 . We must first
    calculate the difference in x at two slightly different values, t and t + Δt , while
    remembering that we choose Δt to be extremely small:
    Δx = ( t + Δt ) − t 2
    2

    = t 2 + ( Δt ) + 2t Δt − t 2
    2

    Δx Δx dx
    = Δt + 2t ⇒ lim = =2
    Δt Δt → 0 Δt dt

    5. In exactly the same way you can show that if x(t ) = t n then:
    dx Δx
    ≡ lim = nt n −1
    dt Δt →0 Δt
    This is an extremely useful result.

    © Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan 1


    PHYSICS –PHY101 VU

    6. Let us apply the above to the function x (t ) which represents the distance moved
    by a body with constant acceleration (see lecture 2):
    1
    x (t ) = x0 + v 0t + at 2
    2
    dx 1
    = 0 + v 0 + a (2t ) = v 0 + a t
    dt 2
    dv
    This clearly shows that = 0 + a = a (acceleration is constant)
    dt

    7. A stone dropped from rest increases its speed in the downward direction according
    dv
    to = g ≈ 9.8 m/sec. This is true provided we are fairly close to the earth, otherwise
    dt
    the value of g decreases as we go further away from the earth. Also, note that if we
    measured distances from the ground up, then the acceleration would be negative.

    dv d ⎛ dx ⎞ d 2 x d 2x
    8. A useful notation: write = ⎜ ⎟ = 2 . We call the second derivative
    dt dt ⎝ dt ⎠ dt dt 2
    of x with respect to t , or the rate of rate of change of x with respect to t .

    9. It is easy to extend these ideas to a body moving in both the x and y directions. The
    position and velocity in 2 dimensions are:
    G
    r = x (t )iˆ + y (t ) ˆj
    G
    G dr dx ˆ dy ˆ
    v= = i+ j
    dt dt dt
    = v x iˆ + v y ˆj
    Here the unit vectors iˆ and ˆj are fixed, meaning that they do not depend upon time.

    G G
    10. The scalar product of two vectors A and B is defined as:
    G G
    A ⋅ B = AB cos θ
    You can think of:
    G G
    A ⋅ B = ( A)( B cos θ )
    G G G
    = (length of A) × (projection of B on A)
    OR,
    G G
    A ⋅ B = ( B )( A cos θ )
    G G G
    = (length of B ) × (projection of A o n B ).
    Remember that for unit vectors iˆ ⋅ iˆ = ˆj ⋅ ˆj = 1 and iˆ ⋅ ˆj = 0.

    © Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan 2

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