1.

2 MOTION

CAMBRIDGE O/L
PHYSICS (5054)

MOTION, FORCES AND ENERGY

Topic two
1.2 MOTION

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1.2 MOTION

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Define speed as distance travelled per unit time and define velocity as change in
displacement per unit time.
2. Recall and use the equation
𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒
𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 =
𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒
𝑠
𝑣=
𝑡
3. Recall and use the equation
𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑑
𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 = 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒
𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛
4. Define acceleration as change in velocity per unit time, recall and use the equation
𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦
𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑖𝑛
𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛
∆𝑣
𝑎=
∆𝑡
5. State what is meant by, and describe examples of, uniform acceleration and non-uniform
acceleration
6. Know that a deceleration is a negative acceleration and use this in calculations
7. Sketch, plot and interpret distance-time and speed-time graphs
8. Determine from the shape of a distance time graph when an object is:
a) At rest
b) Moving with constant speed
c) Accelerating
d) Decelerating
9. Determine from the shape of the speed-time graph when an object is:
a) At rest
b) Moving with constant speed
c) Moving with constant acceleration
d) Moving with changing acceleration
10. State that the acceleration of freefall g for an object near to the earth surface of the earth is
approximately constant and is approximately 9.8m/s2
11. Calculate speed from the gradient of a distance-time graph
12. Calculate the area under the speed-time graph to determine the distance travelled for
motion with constant speed or constant acceleration
13. Calculate acceleration from the gradient of a speed –time graph

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1.2 MOTION

DISTANCE AND DISPLACEMENT

 Distance
START
 Length of the path taken
 No specific direction
 Scaler quantity 750m
 Displacement 300m
 Shortest length between the starting
Point and the ending point
 Has a direction
 Vector quantity
 Units: m, cm, km
END

SPEED AND VELOCITY

 Speed
 Distance travelled per unit time
𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆
𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒆𝒅 =
𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆
𝒔
𝒗=
𝒕

 Average speed
 Used to calculate for a journey where speed is not constant
𝒕𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆
𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒆𝒅 =
𝒕𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆

 Velocity
 Change in displacement per unit time
𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕
𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 =
𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆

 Unit: km/h or m/s (kmh-1 or ms-1)

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1.2 MOTION

Example:
If a man drove a car from city A to another city B and he took route AOB and completed his
journey in 10hrs as show in figure. Then his

 Distance travelled = 400km + 300km = 700km

 Displacement = 500km
 Speed:
𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 700𝑘𝑚
𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 = = = 70𝑘𝑚ℎ−1
𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 10ℎ
 Speed is a scalar quantity, therefore it is
Independent of direction

Example:
If a man drove a car from city A to another city B., he took route AOB and completed his
journey as shown in figure. Then his
𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒
 𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 =
𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒
400+300𝑘𝑚
=
20+15ℎ
700𝑘𝑚
= Time: 20hrs
35ℎ

= 20𝑘𝑚ℎ−1
Time: 15hrs

𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡
 𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 =
𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒

500𝑘𝑚 Time: 20hrs

=
20ℎ
= 25𝑘𝑚ℎ−1 In north east direction

 Velocity is a vector quantity, therefore velocity of return journey will be negative

 If driver followed shortest path AB, then the magnitude of speed and velocity would
have been the same.

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ACCELERATION
 Acceleration is the change in velocity per unit time.
𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚
𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 =
𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒏
𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 − 𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚
𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 =
𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒏
∆𝒗
𝒂=
∆𝒕

 The SI unit of acceleration is m/s2 (ms-2)

Example:
If a car increases it’s speed from 30m/s to 45m/s in 5s. Then,
𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 − 𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦
𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 =
𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛
45 − 30𝑚𝑠 −1 15𝑚𝑠 −1
𝑎= =
5𝑠 5𝑠
𝑎 = 3𝑚𝑠 −2

∴ The acceleration of the car is 3ms-2

 Acceleration is vector quantity.

 The direction of acceleration is the direction of change in velocity.
 Acceleration occurs when,
 Speed changes
 Direction changes
 Both speed and direction changes
 Uniform acceleration
 The acceleration is constant with time
If a car is moving at an uniform acceleration of 10 m/s2
 It means that acceleration does not change as the time passes.
 Although speed is changing, the change in speed is constant.
 Speed changes by 10m/s in each second.

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 Non-Uniform acceleration
 The acceleration varies with time in non-uniform acceleration.
 Acceleration may increase or decrease.
 Consider the following journey of a car.
 The car is accelerates with 10 m/s-2 .
 Suddenly it reduces its speed by 8 m/s due to traffic.
 Then it increases its speed by 15 m/s.
 The acceleration changes continuously in the above journey.
 Therefore This is called a non- uniform acceleration

 Negative acceleration
 Also known as Deceleration or Retardation
 An object is said to have negative acceleration When the velocity decreases
 Direction of deceleration is opposite to the direction of motion

Example:
If the initial velocity of a car is 25m/s and is slowed down to a final velocity of 10m/s in 3s. then,

𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 − 𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦

𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 =
𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛
10 − 25𝑚𝑠 −1 −15𝑚𝑠 −1
𝑎= =
3𝑠 3𝑠
𝑎 = −5𝑚𝑠 −2
The acceleration of the car is -5ms-2 (negative acceleration)
∴ The deceleration or retardation is 5ms-2

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DISTANCE-TIME GRAPH
 Speed of the motion can be obtained from gradient of a distance-time graph gives
the

 Object at rest

 Time is increasing to the right, but

its distance does not change.
 Object is not moving
(At rest/ stationary)
 Gradient of the graph is zero
 therefore speed is zero

 Object moving with constant speed

 Time is increasing to the right

 Distance is increasing constantly
with time
 Constant speed is shown by straight
line on a graph
 Gradient of the graph is constant
 Therefore speed is constant

 The steeper red line indicates a

larger distance moved in a given
v
time.
 Red line covered 120m in 2s
 Green line covered 120m in 5s
 In other word red line has higher
speed
 Gradient of red line is higher than
green line. Therefore red line has
higher speed

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 Object accelerating
 line on this graph is curving
upwards becoming steeper
 Distance covered by the object gets
larger with time
 Gradient of the graph increases
 Speed increases with time
 Object is accelerating

 Object decelerating
 Line on this graph is curving
downwards
 Distance covered by object gets
smaller with time
 Gradient of the graph decreases
 Speed decreases with time
 Object Is decelerating

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SPEED-TIME GRAPH
 gradient of speed-time graph gives the acceleration of the object
 Area under the speed-time graph gives the distance travelled by the object

 Object at rest

 Time is increasing, but speed is

zero throughout the graph
 Object is at rest
 Gradient of the graph is zero
 Therefore acceleration is zero

 object moving with constant speed

 Time is increasing, but its speed
does not change
 Object has a constant speed
 Gradient of the graph is constant
 therefore speed is constant

 object moving with constant acceleration

 Time is increasing to the right
 Speed is constantly increasing
with time
 Gradient of the graph is constant
and upwards
 Acceleration is constant
 Straight line indicates constant
acceleration
 Red line has higher acceleration
than the purple line

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 object moving with constant deceleration

 Time is increasing to right
 Speed is constantly
decreasing with time
 Gradient of the graph
constant and downwards
 Acceleration is constant but
negative
 Object is decelerating
 Green line has greater
deceleration than brown line

Example:
 Motion of the object:
 Object accelerates from rest and reach 10m/s in 5s.
 Then moves with constant speed of 10m/s in next 10s.
 finally object decelerates from 10m/s and becomes rest within next 5s

 Acceleration:

∆𝑣 10−0
𝑎= = = 2𝑚𝑠 −2
∆𝑡 5−0

 Deceleration:
∆𝑣 0 − 10
𝑎= = = −2𝑚𝑠 −2
∆𝑡 20 − 0
Deceleration is 2ms-2

 Distance travelled:
1
𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑝𝑒𝑧𝑖𝑢𝑚 = (𝑎 + 𝑏) × ℎ
2
1
𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 = (20 + 10) × 10
2
𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 = 150𝑚

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Free fall

 Any object that is being acted upon only by the force of gravity is said to be in the state of
free fall.
 There are three important motion characteristic that are true for the freely falling objects.
1. Free-falling objects do not encounter air resistance
2. The acceleration of freefall g for an object near to the earth surface of the earth is
approximately constant and is approximately 9.8m/s2
3. Free-falling objects are not affected by the mass and shape of the objects

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