NEET Revision Notes

Physics
Motion in a Straight Line

Kinematics:
Kinematics is the study of the motion of a system of bodies without directly
considering the forces or potential fields affecting the motion.

The frame of reference:

The frame of reference is a system of coordinates axes attached to an observer
having a clock with him, concerning which the observer can describe the position,
displacement, acceleration etc., of a moving body.

Types of Frame of References:

● Inertial frame of reference: In which Newton’s first law of motion does
not hold good. It means that no external force is acting on a body; it will
stay at rest or remain in uniform motion.
Example: A car at a standstill, A Bus moving with constant speed
● Non-Inertial frame of reference: In which Newton’s first law of motion
does not hold good. It means that it undergoes acceleration concerning an
inertial frame.
Example: A car accelerating during signals, Earth rotating the sun

Motion
A body is said to be in motion if it changes its position with time, with respect to
its surroundings, e.g. a bird flying in the air. Rest and motion are relative terms.
Types of motion:
● Motion in one dimension is defined as a particle moving in a single
direction throughout its journey. For example, an ant moving along X-axis.
Motion is described in terms of displacement(x), time (t), velocity (v) and
acceleration (a).
● Motion in two dimensions: It is defined as a particle moving in a plane, i.e.
a two-dimensional motion has happened in a plane of X-Y axis. For
example, an ant moving on the top surface of a desk. Motion is described
in terms of the projectile and circular motion.

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 ● Motion in three dimensions: It is defined as a particle moving in space, i.e.
a three-dimensional motion has happened in a plane of the X-Y-Z axis. For
example, the movement of the gyroscope.

Scalar Quantities
The physical quantities which have only magnitude but no direction are known
as scalar quantities, e.g., mass, work etc.

Vector Quantities
The physical quantities which have both magnitudes and direction are known as
vector quantities, e.g., force, velocity etc.

Image: Difference between scalars and vectors

Distance and Displacement

● Distance: The length of the actual path traversed by a body during its
motion in a given interval is called the distance travelled by the body. Its
SI unit is meters (m), and its dimension is L. Displacement is independent
of the path, but distance is dependent on the path travelled.
● Displacement: Displacement is defined as the shortest distance travelled
by the body. Its SI unit is meters (m), and its dimension is L. Distance is a
scalar quantity, whereas displacement is a vector quantity.

Image: Difference between distance and displacement

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 Distance
The length of path covered by a
moving object irrespective of the
direction in which the object is moving
It is a scalar quantity
It will not be zero
It is always greater than or equal to
displacement
It is always positive
Displacement
The shortest distance from the initial
position of an object to its final
position
It is a vector quantity
It will become zero if and only if the
body returns to its starting position
It can be equal to distance if and only if
it is a straight line motion
It can be positive, negative or zero

Speed
Speed of a body is defined as the rate of change of position of the body with time
in any direction.
distance
i.e., speed =
time

Average Speed
Average speed is defined as the ratio of the total distance travelled by the body to
the total time taken.
Average distance
i.e., Average speed =
time taken
[ M 0 LT 1 ]

Instantaneous Speed
The limit of the ratio of distance and time i.e. the rate of change of distance with
respect to time is called instantaneous speed.
ds
i.e. speed(i )  where ds is the rate of change in distance.
dt

Velocity
● Velocity of a body is defined as the rate of change of displacement of the
displacement
body with time i.e., velocity = Both the speed and velocity
time taken
have the same unit and same dimension formula [ M 0 LT 1 ] .

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 ● Average velocity: Average velocity is defined as the ratio of the
displacement to the time interval for which the motion takes place.
total displacement
i.e., average velocity =
total time taken
● Instantaneous velocity: The velocity of a body at a given instant of time
during motion is known as instantaneous velocity
r dr
i.e., Instantaneous velocity = lim 
t0 t dt

Acceleration
● Acceleration of a body is defined as the rate of change of velocity of a body
velocity
with time. i.e. acceleration =
time
● Average acceleration: Average acceleration is defined as the ratio of the
change in velocity to the time interval during which the change occurs
total velocity
i.e. avgerage acceleration =
total time
● Instantaneous acceleration: The acceleration of a body at a given instant
of time is known as instantaneous acceleration.
v dv
i.e. a  lim 
t 0 t dt
● If a body is speeding up, acceleration is in the direction of velocity, if its
speed is decreasing, acceleration is in the direction opposite to that of the
velocity.
● The zero-velocity of a body at any instant does not necessarily imply zero
acceleration at that instant. A body may be momentarily at rest and yet
have non-zero acceleration.
● When the acceleration is uniform instantaneous acceleration equals
average acceleration over that period.

Image: Variations of speed, velocity and acceleration

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Graphs on Kinematics:
Kinematic situations happening in our day-to-day life can be represented in the
form of graphs that vary with time and are called kinematic graphs.
Generally, there are three kinds of graphs:
● Displacement time graph
● Velocity time graph
● Acceleration time graph

Displacement-Time Graph:
If a graph is plotted by taking displacement on the y-axis and time on the x-axis,
then it is called a displacement-time graph.
● If the graph is a straight line parallel to the time-axis, the body is at rest,
i.e., velocity=zero like in fig. (a).
● If the graph is a straight line inclined to time-axis shows that body is
moving with a constant velocity like in fig. (b).
● If the graph obtained is a curve whose slope decreases with time, the
velocity decreases, i.e., motion is retarded.
● If the graph obtained is a curve whose slope increases with time, the
velocity increases, i.e., motion is accelerated like in fig. (c).

Image: Different variations of displacement

Velocity-Time Graph:
● If the graph is a straight line parallel to the time axis, the body is moving
with a constant velocity or acceleration of zero.
● If the graph is a straight line inclined to the time axis with a positive slope
it means that the body is moving with constant acceleration.
● If the graph obtained is a curve whose slope decreases with time, the
acceleration goes on decreasing.
● If the graph obtained is a curve whose slope increases with time, the
acceleration goes on increasing.

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 ● The area of the velocity-time graph with the time axis represents the
displacement of that body.

Image: Different variations of velocity

Acceleration-Time Graph:
● When the graph is a straight line and parallel to time axis then acceleration
is constant.
● When the graph is oblique straight line having positive slope, then
acceleration is uniformly increasing.
● When the graph is an oblique straight line having negative slope, then
acceleration is uniformly decreasing.

Image: Different variations of acceleration

Example: Consider a body moving with a constant velocity of 5ms-1 and thus
moves with uniformly decreasing velocity of 4ms-1 . Represent the following
situations graphically using a v-t graph and explain the nature of
acceleration.
Solution:

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Image: Example
From this graph we can observe that a v-t graph is drawn with velocity at y-axis
and acceleration at x-axis. Considering the body moving with constant velocity
of 5ms 1 shown in the horizontal line which indicates there is 0 acceleration as
the velocity is constant.
For a body whose velocity is decreasing i.e. here 4ms 1 the body is said to have
deceleration i.e. negative acceleration.

Equations of Motion for a Uniformly Accelerated Body:

Study of kinematics is a deep study about nature of moving body and how one
quantity is related to the other. Since we learned about the quantities of a one-
dimensional motion, let us see how they are related.
Uniformly accelerating body is defined as a body whose acceleration is said to be
uniform. For a uniformly accelerating body, the standard quantities of one-
dimensional motion (velocity, acceleration…) are related as follows:
1. v  u  at
1
2. s  ut  at 2
2
3. v2  u 2  2as
1
4. sn  u  a(2n  1)
2
Here, u is the initial velocity, v is the final velocity, a is the acceleration, s is the
distance travelled or height at time interval t.

Equations of Motion for a Freely Falling Body Under Gravity:

Freely falling body is defined as the body falling freely i.e. under the action of
gravitational force. The equations of motion is similar to the above but here

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acceleration is given by “g” which is called as acceleration due to gravity i.e. its
value is g  9.8ms 2 . The equations of motion can be generalized as:
1. v  u  gt
1 2
2. s  ut  gt
2
3. v 2  u 2  2 gs
1
4. sn  u  g (2n  1)
2

Relative Velocity:
● Relative velocity of a body is defined as the velocity of a body applied on
another body.
● Vr  Va  Vb is the equation for relative velocity of one body A on another
body B.
● It depends on the direction, i.e. for towards motion it is negative and for
away motion it is positive.

Important formulae:
distance
● speed =
time
Average distance
● Average speed =
time taken
ds
● speed(i )  where ds is the rate of change in distance.
dt
displacement
● velocity =
time taken
total displacement
● average velocity =
total time taken
r dr
● Instantaneous velocity = lim 
t0 t dt
velocity
● acceleration =
time
total velocity
● avgerage acceleration =
total time

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 v dv
● Instantaneous acceleration: a  lim 
t 0 t dt
● Equations of Motion for A Uniformly Accelerated Body:
o v  u  at
1
o s  ut  at 2
2
o v2  u 2  2as
1
o sn  u  a(2n  1)
2
● Equations of Motion for A Freely Falling Body Under Gravity:
o v  u  gt
1 2
o s  ut  gt
2
o v 2  u 2  2 gs
1
o sn  u  g (2n  1)
2

Points to remember:
● Kinematics is the study of motion of a system of bodies without directly
considering the forces or potential fields affecting the motion.
● The frame of reference is a system of coordinates axes attached to an
observer having a clock with him, concerning which the observer can
describe a moving body's position, displacement, and acceleration.
● Types of frames of reference: Inertial and Non-Inertial.
● A body are said to be in motion if it changes its position with time,
concerning its surroundings, e.g. a bird flying in the air. Rest and motion
are relative terms.
● Types of motion: Motion in one dimension, Motion in two, and Motion in
three.
● The physical quantities which have only magnitude but no direction are
known as scalar quantities, e.g., mass, work etc.
● The physical quantities which have both magnitudes and direction are
known as vector quantities, e.g., force, velocity etc.
● Distance: The length of the actual path traversed by a body during its
motion in a given interval of time is called distance travelled by the body.
Its SI unit is meters (m), and its dimension is L.

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 ● Displacement: Displacement is defined as the shortest distance travelled
by the body. Its SI unit is meters (m), and its dimension is L.
● Speed of a body is defined as the rate of change of body position with time
in any direction.
● Average speed is the ratio of the total distance travelled by the body to the
total time taken.
● The limit of the ratio of distance and time, i.e. the rate of change of distance
with respect to time, is called instantaneous speed.
● Velocity of a body is defined as the rate of change of displacement of the
body with time
● Average velocity is defined as the ratio of the displacement to the time
interval for which the motion takes place.
● The velocity of a body at a given instant of time during motion is known
as instantaneous velocity
● Acceleration of a body is defined as the rate of change of velocity of a body
with time.
● Average acceleration is the ratio of the change in velocity to the time
interval during which the change occurs.
● The acceleration of a body at a given instant of time is known as
instantaneous acceleration.
● Different types of graphs on kinematics, i.e. motion in one dimension is a
position-time graph, Velocity-time graph, acceleration-time graph.
● Relative velocity of a body is defined as the velocity of a body applied to
another.

Questions:
1. Given a velocity-time graph whose slope is negative. Which of the
following statements are true?
a) Acceleration is negative
b) Acceleration is positive
c) Displacement is negative
d) Displacement is positive
Ans: Option a and c
In a velocity graph, the slope of the velocity graph always gives acceleration.
Thus for a v-t graph, if the slope is negative, then acceleration and displacement
must be negative to make the slope negative.
Thus, options a) and c) are correct

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2. Which of the following equations are true for acceleration?
velocity
a) acceleration =
time
Δv dv
b) a = lim =
t 0 Δt dt
1
c) s = ut + at 2
2
d) None of these
Ans: a, b and c
Acceleration is defined as the ratio of velocity with time taken. Since the given
options a) define acceleration,
b) defines instantaneous acceleration
c) define acceleration for some distance s
Hence, all these equations are related to acceleration.

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