MOTION

The study of motion is divided into…

■ KINEMATICS – quantitative description of motion
without the reference to its physical causes
(displacement, velocity, and acceleration)
■ DYNAMICS – study of the relationship between motion
and force.

“OUR FIRST STEP IN STUDY OF MOTION IS TO DEFINE

CONCEPTS FOR MOTION IN A STRAIGHT-LINE MOTION”
FRAME OF REFERENCE AND POSITION
■ POSITION – refers to the location of an object with
respect to some reference frame.
■ REFERENCE FRAME – a physical entity such as the
ground, room or a building to which motion or position
of an object is being referred. Ex. Gymnasium is 20 m to
the right of the main gate.
■ When an object is undergoing a continuous change in
position, we say that the object is moving. Motion is a
relative term. It depends on the reference frame where
motion is being observed.
DISTANCE AND DISPLACEMENT
■ DISTANCE – refers to the actual length of path taken by
an object in moving from its initial position to its final
position.
■ DISPLACEMENT – refers to straight-line distance
between its initial and final positions with direction
toward the final position.

Distance is scalar, while displacement is a vector.

Sample Problem
■ Suppose that in going to school, you walked 40 m
east and 30 m north. (a) What was the total distance
that you walked? (b) What was your total
displacement? When you arrived in school, you
found out that classes were suspended because of
bad weather. You went back home following the
same path. (c) What was the total distance you
walked in going school and back home? (d) What
was your total displacement?
SPEED AND VELOCITY
■ SPEED – is the distance that a body moves in a unit
time.
■ VELOCITY – is the time rate of change of position. It is
the displacement of a body per unit time.

A body normally changes its speed while moving. Hence it

is necessary to distinguish between average speed and
instantaneous speed.
Sample Problem
■ For his daily training, an athlete runs around a
15.0 m radius track five times in 2.50
minutes. What is his (a) average speed and (b)
average velocity?
AVERAGE AND INSTANTANEOUS SPEED
■ AVERAGE SPEED – is the total distance it travelled
divided by the time spent in traveling the total distance.
∆𝒅 𝒅 " 𝒅𝟎
𝝂=
∆𝒕 𝒕 " 𝒕𝟎
■ INSTANTANEOUS SPEED of an object is its speed at a
particular instant of time with ∆𝒕 being extremely small.
The speed indicated by a speedometer is instantaneous
speed.
ACCELERATION
■ ACCELERATION – is change in velocity with respect to
time.
■ Velocity can change in three ways:
1. change in speed, either increase or decrease;
2. change in direction;
3. change in speed as well as direction.
Δ𝑣
𝛼=
Δ𝑡
∆𝑣 = 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦
∆𝑣 = 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒
In which case is the car accelerating?
■ A car changing lanes at constant speed.
■ A car speeding up in an effort to beat the red
light.
■ A car slowing down while making a left turn.
■ A car going around Mabuhay Rotonda at
constant speed.
MOTION IN A STRAIGHT LINE
■ UNIFORM MOTION – the simplest type of motion is
uniform motion. For uniform motion, the velocity is
constant, the acceleration is zero and the
instantaneous velocity is equal to the average velocity.
dx = vt
Sample Problem
■ A car caught in a heavy traffic situation along
Rizal Avenue moves at constant speed
covering of 3.0 m in 5.0s. (a) What is the
speed of the car? (b) How far will the object
move in 10.0 s
Uniform Accelerated Motion
■ A more common type of motion would be that
in which velocity is changing at a constant
rate. Since the discussion is limited to straight-
line motion, acceleration here would mean
change in speed rather than change in
direction.
Δ𝑣
𝛼=
Δ𝑡
Uniform Accelerated Motion
■ Knowing the initial velocity, the acceleration and the
time during which the object is accelerating, the
!"
equation 𝛼 = !# , may be rearranged to arrive at an
equation for final velocity. 𝑣 = 𝑣0 + α𝑡
■ Displacement of a uniformly accelerating object may
be obtained from the definition of average velocity.
$
Dx = 𝑣0𝑡 + % 𝑎𝑡2
Sample Problem
■ A racer accelerates from rest at a constant rate of 2.0
m/s/s. (a) How fast will the racer be going at the end of
6.0 s. (b) How far has the racer traveled during this
time?
■ Another useful equation relating final velocity, initial
velocity, and acceleration may be obtained.
2adx = vf 2 – v0 2
Sample Problem
■ A car has uniformly accelerated from rest to a speed of
25 m/s after traveling 75 m. What is its acceleration
Free Fall
■ What goes up always goes down. In the absence of
air resistance, it is found that all bodies regardless
of its size and weight at the same location above
Earth’s surface will fall vertically with the same
acceleration.
■ The acceleration of a freely falling body is called
acceleration due to gravity. This is noted by g and is
equal to – 9.8m/s2 at the surface of Earth
G decreasing with increasing altitude
!"!
𝑔h = "#$ !
R = is the radius of Earth = 6.37 x 108 m
h = is the altitude
g = -9.8 m/s2
gh= acceleration due to gravity at an altitude h
If h is very small compared to R, then gh ≈ g
For our purposes, we shall assume that h is negligible and
g = -9.8 m/s2
Free Fall
■ We may treat free fall as a case of uniformly
accelerated motion. All the equations that we have
derived may be used to analyze free fall. Since
motion is along the vertical direction, in is better to
replace dx and dy in our equations and a by g.
𝟏
■ 𝒅𝒚 = 𝒗𝒐𝒕 + 𝟐 𝒈𝒕𝟐
■ 𝟐𝒈𝒅𝒚 = 𝒗𝟐𝒇 − 𝒗𝟐𝒐
𝒗𝒇 )𝒗𝒐
■𝒈= 𝒕
Sample Problem
■ A boy tosses a coin upward with a velocity of +14.7 m/s.
Find (A) the maximum height reached by the coin, (b)
time of flight, and (c) velocity when the coin returns to
the hand. Suppose the boy failed to catch the coin and
the coin goes to the ground . (d) With what velocity will it
strike the ground? The boy’s hand is 0.49m above the
ground.