Physics

Chapter 2 Outline

Describing Motion and Velocity

Overview - This is the introductory chapter to kinematics. We will study how to describe simple motions including topics on time, displacement and velocity. We will also graph many of these as a visual representation of this motion.

Objective: - Understand, displacement, velocity and their graphical representations.

Start Date: - August 18th, 2006

Due Date: - August 28th, 2006

Suggested Timeframe: - Labs will probably be on the 23rd and 24th, Study Guides are due the 24th and homework on the 25th. The Test will be on the 28th.

Assignment: - The position of an object is its separation from a reference point.

Displacement is a vector quantity indicating the magnitude and direction of an object's change in position.

A scalar quantity is described completely by its magnitude, while a vector quantity requires both a magnitude and a direction.

Average velocity is the displacement (change in position) divided by the time interval.

The slope of a position-time graph is the velocity of the object.

If the position-time graph is a straight line, the object is moving with a constant velocity.

The area under the curve of a velocity-time graph is the displacement of the object.

Instantaneous velocity is the velocity of an object at a given instant.

A frame of reference defines a reference point from which positions are measured.

Download Graphing Software  Create a folder called Wplot32 and unzip file to it. Double click Wplot 32.exe to use.

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