Chapter 2 Kinematics

(i)Scalar and Vector Quantities

In the previous chapter we learned about physical quantities such as Mass, Distance, Temperature, etc.
These are all Scalar Quantities only. Meaning they only have magnitude, i.e 50kg, 75m, 300K

There’s another group of quantities called Vector Quantities such as Velocity, Acceleration,
Displacement. These have both Magnitude and Direction. When we say that an object is moving at a
velocity of 50 ms-1, we mean it is moving with a speed of 50ms -1 in a certain direction. When we say an
object is moving with a speed of 50ms-1, we just mean that it’s moving at a certain speed regardless of
the direction. Some common Vector and Scalar Quantities are given below

Scalar Quantities Vector Quantities

Distance Displacement
Speed Velocity
Mass Acceleration
Energy Force
Time

Now, you may wonder what the difference between distance and displacement is. Aren’t they th same
thing. There is a subtle yet very important difference between the two. Let’s say that an object travels
from Point A to Point B. The linear distance between the two points is 5km. However, the object in
question does not take a linear path turning in all kinds of directions and in the end it’s distance
travelled is 10km. However, it’s displacement is still 5km. Even though it travelled 10km, it’s ended up
5km away from the point at which it started.

If the object went back to Point A again from Point B, it’s overall displacement would be zero, because it
just ended up in the same place in which is started. As mentioned before displacement has both
magnitude and direction. We take a certain direction, such as East, to be positive and if an object travels
in the opposite direction (West) it’s change in displacement is said to be negative. In the previous
example, A to B is positive while B to A is negative.

(ii)Speed

We’ve all seen runners racing past each other in running competitions. The runner who is fastest, wins.
His speed is the greatest. But what exactly is speed? If you really think about it, speed all comes down to
distance and time. Let’s say we’re watching a 100m marathon. The runner who can run that distance in
the shortest time wins. Therefore, speed is just the distance travelled in a certain unit of time. The SI
unit for speed is ms-1 and it can be found using the formula

d
S=
t
However, if you’ve seen a runner in real life, you’ll see that at some points in the race the runner is
faster compared to other points. Using the formula previously shown, we can find an object’s
instantaneous speed, meaning it’s speed at a certain point in time. However, the speed throughout an
object’s journey is called it’s average speed

Total Distance Travelled

Average Speed = Total Time Taken ¿
¿
(ii)Velocity

Velocity, like displacement, is a vector quantity. It has both magnitude and direction. Let’s say you go on
a bike ride from Point A to B and back to A at a speed of 15km/h. But your velocity will be zero because
you ended up the same place you started, Point A.

displacement
V=
time
(iii)Acceleration

Have you ever seen a rocket launching into space. You’ve no doubt noticed that when it starts lifting off
the ground it’s velocity is quite low. However, when it’s in space it’s velocity seems to have increased
greatly. The rocket has accelerated.

Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity. An object is said to have accelerated when it changes
speed and/or direction. So basically, acceleration is the rate at which the velocity of an object changes.
It’s SI unit is ms-2 or meter per second per second.

Change∈velocity
Acceleration =
Time Taken
If we have an object, let’s say, travelling at 5ms -1 and it’s speed is increasing by 5ms-1 every seconds. The
object is said to be undergoing uniform acceleration as the rate of change of velocity remains the same.
Similiarly, non-uniform acceleration is when the rate of change of velocity changes every second

(iv)Acceleration Due to Gravity

I’m sure you’ve heard the ‘riddle’ – “A bag of steel and a bag of feathers are dropped form the same
height. Which hits the ground first, the steel or the feathers?”. Your first reaction would be to say “The
bag of steel”. But this is totally wrong. Physics says that all objects dropped from the same height will hit
the ground at the same time because all objects are equally attracted to the center of the Earth equally.
So, the answer to the riddle is that both bags hit the ground at the same time. But, if you actually carried
out this experiment and dropped a bag of feathers and a bag of steel from the same height the bag of
steel would hit the ground first. So, what’s wrong? Well what we didn’t take into account earlier was air
resistance. Air resistance acts on all moving objects. The air is made up of particles. And when you are
moving these particles exert a pressure upon you. I’m sure you’ve felt the air pushing against you if
you’ve ever run really fast. Air resistance acts more on feather than steel. And so, in real life the bag of
steel hits the ground first. In Physics problems, we usually ignore air resistance. Air resistance does have
some properties

 The greater the surface are of an object the more air resistance acts on that object
 The faster an object is moving, the more air resistance acts on the object
 The denser the air, the greater the air resistance

If I drop a hammer from let’s say 10 meters above the ground it would take approximately 1s for the
hammer to hit the ground. So theoretically we can say the velocity at which an object falls is 10ms -1.
Okay, then let’s see if that works in other scenarios. In our next experiment, we drop the hammer from
a height of 30 meters. Well, according to our theory, it would take 3s for the hammer to hit the ground.
But we carry out the experiment and we see that it only takes 2s for the hammer to hit the ground. So
what’s going on here? Well, the thing is when we drop an object from a certain height, it doesn’t fall at a
constant velocity. Meaning, it’s accelerating. This is called the acceleration of free fall and is equal to
10ms-2.

However, if you drop an object from high enough it will come to a certain point when it is no longer
accelerating and is moving at a constant velocity. This is called terminal velocity and is reached when the
air resistance is equal to the force of acceleration