Chapter 3

MOTION IN TWO AND THREE

DIMENSIONS

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Lecture slides format and content adapted from Lectures by Jason Harlow

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 Introduction
• What determines where a batted baseball
lands?

• How do you describe the motion of a roller

coaster car along a curved track or the
flight of a circling hawk?

• Which hits the ground first, a baseball that

you simply drop or one that you throw
horizontally?
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 Position vector
• The position vector from the origin to point
P has components x, y, and z.

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 Average velocity
• The average velocity between two points is the
displacement divided by the time interval
• between the two points, and it has the same
direction as the displacement.

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 Instantaneous velocity
• The instantaneous velocity is
the instantaneous rate of
change of position vector
with respect to time.
• Components:
𝑣𝑣𝑥𝑥 = 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑/𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑, 𝑣𝑣𝑦𝑦 = 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑/𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑, and
𝑣𝑣𝑧𝑧 = 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑/𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑.
𝑣𝑣⃗ = 𝑣𝑣𝑥𝑥 2 + 𝑣𝑣𝑦𝑦 2 + 𝑣𝑣𝑧𝑧 2
𝑣𝑣𝑦𝑦
tan 𝛼𝛼 =
𝑣𝑣𝑥𝑥

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 Velocity
• We define the average velocity as the
displacement divided by the time interval:

• Instantaneous velocity is the instantaneous rate of

change of position with time:

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 Acceleration
• Average acceleration as
the change in velocity
divided by the time interval

• Instantaneous acceleration
at time 𝑡𝑡

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 Average velocity and acceleration
• The change in velocity between two points is determined
by vector subtraction.

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 Instantaneous acceleration
• The velocity vector is always
tangent to the particle’s path, but
the instantaneous acceleration
vector does not have to be
tangent to the path.

• If the path is curved, the

acceleration points toward
the concave side of the path.

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 Components of acceleration

• Shooting an arrow is an example of an acceleration vector

that has both x- and y-components.

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 Parallel and perpendicular components of
acceleration
• Velocity and acceleration vectors
for a particle moving through a
point P on a curved path with
constant speed

• Velocity and acceleration vectors

for a particle moving through a
point P on a curved path with
increasing speed

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Parallel and perpendicular components of acceleration
• Velocity and acceleration vectors for a particle
moving through a point P on a curved path with
decreasing speed

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 Example

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 Projectile motion
• A projectile is any body given an initial velocity
that then follows a path determined by the
effects of gravity and air resistance.
• Begin by neglecting resistance and the curvature
and rotation of the earth.

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 The x- and y-motion are separable
• The red ball is dropped at the
same time that the yellow ball is
fired horizontally.
• The strobe marks equal time
intervals.
• We can analyze projectile
motion as horizontal motion
with constant velocity and
vertical motion with constant
acceleration:

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 Projectile motion
• If air resistance is negligible, the trajectory of a
projectile is a combination of horizontal motion
with constant velocity and vertical motion with
constant acceleration.

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 Projectile motion – Initial velocity
• The initial velocity components of a projectile
(such as a kicked soccer ball) are related to the
initial speed and initial angle.

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 The equations for projectile motion
• If we set 𝑥𝑥0 = 𝑦𝑦0 = 0 , the equations
describing projectile motion are shown
below:

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Equations of motion

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 The effects of air resistance
• Calculations become
more complicated.
• Acceleration is not
constant.
• Effects can be very
large.
• Maximum height and
range decrease.
• Trajectory is no longer
a parabola.

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 Motion in a circle
• Uniform circular motion is • Car slowing down
constant speed along a along a circular path
circular path.

• Car speeding up
along a circular path

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Acceleration for uniform circular motion

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Acceleration for uniform circular motion
• For uniform circular motion,
the instantaneous
acceleration
always points toward the
center of the circle and is
called the centripetal
acceleration.
• The magnitude of the
acceleration is arad = v2/R.
• The period T is the time for
one revolution, and
arad = 4π2R/T 2.
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Uniform circular motion

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Projectile motion

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 Non-uniform circular motion
• If the speed varies, the motion
is non-uniform circular motion.

• The radial acceleration

component is still 𝑎𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 = 𝑣𝑣2/𝑅𝑅 ,
but there is also a tangential
acceleration component 𝑎𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡
that is parallel to the
instantaneous velocity.

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 Relative velocity
• The velocity of a moving
body seen by a particular
observer is called the
velocity relative to that
observer, or simply the
relative velocity.

• A frame of reference is a
coordinate system plus a
time scale.

• In many situations
relative velocity is
extremely important.
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 Relative velocity in one dimension
• If point P is moving relative to reference frame A,
we denote the velocity of P relative to frame A as
vP/A.
• If P is moving relative to frame B and frame B is
moving relative to frame A, then the x-velocity of P
relative to frame A is vP/A-x = vP/B-x + vB/A-x.

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Relative velocity in two or three dimensions
We extend relative velocity to two or three dimensions by
using vector addition to combine velocities

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