Forces and Motion Lesson 1

Study Notes

Describing position involves referencing a starting point known as a reference point, which can be a person, object, or location.
Position includes both the distance and direction from the reference point.
Displacement is defined as the difference between an object's initial and final positions, unlike distance, which considers the total length of the path traveled.

Distance is the actual length of the path an object travels; for example, a baseball player running to first base covers a distance of 25 m.
Displacement only concerns the initial and final positions; after running to second base, the player's displacement from home plate is 35 m, even though the distance traveled is 50 m.
If a player returns to home plate after running all bases, the total distance is 100 m, but the displacement is 0 m since the starting and ending positions are the same.

Average speed is calculated by dividing the distance by the time taken to cover that distance (e.g., 1 km in 15 minutes equals 4 km/h).
Velocity combines speed with direction, making it a vector quantity that shows both how fast and in which direction an object is moving.
Arrows are often used to represent vectors, with arrow length indicating speed and arrow direction showing movement direction.

Constant velocity occurs when both speed and direction do not change over time, represented by equal-length segments on a graph.
Velocity can change when either the speed or the direction of the object changes, even if the speed remains constant.

Distance-time graphs visually represent the relationship between time and distance traveled by an object.
A straight line on a distance-time graph indicates constant speed, while a curve shows changing speed.