Physics 9 Starter Pack

This is a compilation of module for Linear Motion as

preparatory lessons for Newton’s Laws of Motion and
Projectile Motion. This module covers only the following

1. Review of Non-accelerated and Uniformly Accelerated

Motions
2. Introduction to Basic Trigonometry

Red Gallego
Rochin Ramos
 General Instruction

Feel free to cover the topics at your own pace. This is a non-graded set of tasks
but this gives you enough advantage as we proceed with our lesson. Your answer
for the self-assessment part is very crucial as these give us feedback on which
one to focus during our meeting.

Flip to the next page and begin.

PHYSICS 9 STARTER PACK
 Task 1: Review the Non-accelerating motion.
Recall the relationship between distance, time and speed in constant motion

Motion, as you learned in lower grade levels, occurs when there is an obvious change in
position. “Obvious change in motion” means that any observer can see that an object was in
one position during the earlier time and to the next position on another time. Say your
classmate was in front of you during the earlier time and far away to your side on another
time. When you, as an observer, see that change in position, you see that a certain distance
was covered. However, when your classmate stays in your front all the time, you are very sure
that he is not changing position, thus, did not cover a distance. To sum, if Point A is not at the
same position as Point B, then, there must be distance separating the two points.

When observing your two classmates moving from Point A to Point B, you can correctly say
that they have motion because they change positions. But that does not guarantee that they
move in the same manner when covering that same distance. One might have arrived Point B
earlier than the other so he consumed lesser time in travelling compared to the other. When
we get the ratio between the distance and the time, we get the “rate of covering a distance”
or the amount of distance covered per unit time. That is called speed.

Answer briefly.

1. How do you present the relationship between the distance and time in speed,
mathematically?

2. What is the unit for distance? time? speed?

PHYSICS 9 STARTER PACK

3. Your classmate Bonbon, traveled Point A to Point B in 10minutes. Your other

classmate Deedee traveled same points in 5minutes. Which of them travels faster?
How much faster?
 Task 2: Review the uniformly-accelerating motion.
Recall the concept of constantly accelerated motion.

Acceleration only happens when there is a change in the direction of the motion or change of
the speed. It is present when the moving object is turning a curve, slowing down, or speeding
up. When there is no change in motion, then there is no acceleration no matter how fast the
object is moving.

Suppose an object started from rest and seconds later it was moving at a certain speed, during
that moment, it did not maintain its speed. Acceleration is present. Like a jeepney starting to
move after a passenger loads onto it. Or when the same jeepney sees a reason to stop, it
changes its speed from fast to stop. The whole idea of acceleration is not only on changing
speeds, but also on how fast the speed changes.

A bike from rest and move at 10m/s after 2 seconds has the same acceleration as that of car
that changes speed from 40m/s to 50m/s within the same amount of time. Mathematically,
acceleration is the rate of change in speed. The rate of change in speed means how much
faster or how much slower the motion can become every given amount of time. In the case of
the bike and the car here, the change in speed is 5m/s every second or 5m/s2.

When an object maintains a uniform or constant acceleration, it means that its speed increases
or decreases with the same rate throughout the given time of travel. Consider an object that
travels at 5m/s suddenly speeds up with the rate of 1m/s every second, it means that 1
second after its speed becomes 6m/s, 1 second later it becomes 7m/s, and 1 second later still
it becomes 8m/s. Now consider an object that travels at 5m/s suddenly slows down at the
rate of 1m/s every second, it means that 1 second later, its speed will become 4m/s, additional
second will make it 3m/s, and so on.
PHYSICS 9 STARTER PACK
 Answer briefly.

1. How do you present the relationship between the speed and time in acceleration,
mathematically?

2. What is the unit for acceleration?

3. When the driver sees the road is totally free from traffic, the decided to speed up at
the rate of 2m/s every second. If the vehicle has been maintaining a speed of 10m/s,
how fast does it move 5 seconds later?

4. You are in a car that is moving at 10m/s. When the driver sees a red light, he stepped
on the brakes so that the car slowed down at a steady rate of 2m/s every second.
After how many seconds will it stop?
PHYSICS 9 STARTER PACK
 Task 3: Familiarize free fall
Relate the constantly accelerated motion to free fall

A free fall is a type of motion that is not influenced by any forces other than the gravity. It is a
uniformly accelerated motion with a known acceleration of 9.8m/s2. For simplicity sake, we
will be rounding off the value to 10m/s2.

Under free fall, an object that is moving to the direction of the gravity is bound to gain a speed
of 10m/s every second of its motion. Thus an object that is dropped will have an increasing
speed as it proceeds downward.

An object that is moving against to gravity is bound to lose a speed of 10m/s in every second
of its motion. Thus, an object that is thrown upward will tend to slowdown constantly as it
proceeds upward. By the time all its upward velocity is gone, it starts travelling downward.

Answer briefly.
1. When an object is dropped, does its speed increase or decrease? By how much?

2. Suppose an object is dropped, what is its speed 3 seconds later?

3. When an object is thrown upward, does its speed increase or decrease? By how
much?
PHYSICS 9 STARTER PACK

4. Suppose an object is thrown with an initial velocity of 30m/s, how many seconds
does it take before its velocity becomes zero?
 Task 4: Reason out with free fall (Part 1)
Predict the time of flight.

You throw an object upward, it is technically falling. The fact that its speed slows down as it
proceeds upward is an evidence that it is falling. We cannot see it moving downward because
its initial velocity is directed upward but the manifestation of slowing down a due to an
acceleration directed to the opposite direction of the motion, that is, going down.

The same idea as you’ve read in Task 3, the speed of the vertical motion changes at a rate of
10m/s every second. Negative change when an object proceeds upward-slowing down, and
positive change when the object proceeds downward- speeding up. When you throw an object
upward, it first slow down going upward, then speeds up going downward. When the throw is
directly upwards, it will always go back to the point where it started.

Answer briefly.
An object is thrown directly upward with an initial speed of 40m/s.

1. How fast and in which direction does it move after 2 seconds?

2. How many seconds does it take before its upward speed becomes zero?

3. How fast and in what direction does it move after 6seconds from throwing?
PHYSICS 9 STARTER PACK

4. How many seconds will the object stay airborne before it goes back to the point
where it started?
 Task 5: Reason out with free fall (Part 2)
Predict the instantaneous speed of falling object.

Answer briefly.
An object is thrown directly upward with an initial speed of 55m/s.

1. How fast and in which direction does it move after 3 seconds?

2. How fast and in which direction does it move after 5.5 seconds?

3. How fast and in which direction does it move after 7.5 seconds?

4. How many seconds will the object stay airborne before it goes back to the point
where it started?
PHYSICS 9 STARTER PACK
 Task 6: Familiarize the right triangle
Identify the side of the triangle.

The right triangle is a triangle that has a 90o interior angle. An

example is shown as Figure 1. The longest leg of any right triangle
is called the hypotenuse. In the Figure 1 the sides are labeled a, b,
and c. The c is called the hypotenuse. The length of the hypotenuse
is related to the lengths of sides a and b in a theorem formulated by
Pythagoras. As for the moment, let us limit ourselves to the idea
Figure 1: a right triangle
that length of the hypotenuse cannot be greater that the sum of the
lengths of sides a and b.

The sides a and b have arbitrary names. One could be the adjacent
and the other is opposite. The “arbitrariness” of the names ends with
the assignment of a reference angle, which is usually denoted by the
Greek letter, ϴ (theta), as shown in Figure 2. The side b is located next
to the reference angle. Hence it’s called adjacent side. The side a is
located on the opposite side of the reference angle hence, it is called
Figure 2: a right triangle with
the opposite side. angle

Identify the hypotenuse, adjacent, and opposite sides of each of the following triangles.
PHYSICS 9 STARTER PACK
 Task 7: Introduction to Basic Trigo
Define the three trigonometric functions (sine, cosine, tangent)

There are three basic trigonometric functions that you need to know at this point in time.
These are sine (sin), cosine (cos), and tangent (tan). Each of these is a function that operates
on a reference angle theta (ϴ). When each of these operates on a reference angle, it generates
a value similar to the ratio of the two sides of a triangle.

opposite adjacent opposite

sin ϴ = cos ϴ = tan ϴ =
hypotenuse hypotenuse adjacent

Consider the Figure 3.

a b a
sin ϴ = cos ϴ = tan ϴ =
c c b

Figure 3: a right triangle with angle

Write the equations for the sine, cosine and tangent functions for each of the following
triangles.
PHYSICS 9 STARTER PACK
 Task 8: Use trigonometric functions
Identify which trigonometric function is the most appropriate to use to determine the
missing part of a right triangle

Given an angle and one side of a right triangle, we can derive the other missing sides by
manipulating these equations below. However, you need to identify first which of these
equations is the most appropriate. The technique is to check which sides of the traingle are
given or unknown, check if these are in the equation.

opposite adjacent opposite

sin ϴ = cos ϴ = tan ϴ =
hypotenuse hypotenuse adjacent

Sample problem

Consider the Figure 4. The encircled side and angle

are given. Solve for sides a and b

Figure 4: Solve for sides a and

b.

Solution:
We only have 2 givens- the angle and the hypotenuse.

Solving for a, (opposite)

Based on the list, we have the hypotenuse c and angle ϴ, plus the unknown opposite a. The most
appropriate function therefore is the sine.

opposite
sin  
PHYSICS 9 STARTER PACK

hypotenuse
sin   hypotenuse  opposite
opposite  hypotenuse  sin 

𝑎 = 𝑐 ∙ 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜃
 Solving for b, (adjacent)
Based on the list, we have the hypotenuse c and angle ϴ, plus the unknown adjacent b. The most
appropriate function therefore is the cosine.

adjacent
cos 
hypotenuse
cos  hypotenuse  adjacent
adjacent  hypotenuse  cos

𝑏 = 𝑐 ∙ 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃

Write the equation for the unknown sides. Note the side in bold circle and the angle are given.
PHYSICS 9 STARTER PACK
 Task 9: Solve for the missing side
Apply appropriate trigonometric function to sample problems.

Use the concept of trigonometric function to solve for the value of the missing side. Feel free
to refer to the notes above, sample from your book, or tutorial from the net.
PHYSICS 9 STARTER PACK
 Task 10: Solve for the missing side
Apply appropriate trigonometric function to sample problems.

Use the concept of trigonometric function to solve for the value of the missing side. Feel free
to refer to the notes above, sample from your book, or tutorial from the net.
PHYSICS 9 STARTER PACK