Motion in One Dimension

2.1 Position, Velocity, and Speed

2.2 Instantaneous Velocity and CHAPTER
Speed
2.3 Analysis Model: Particle Under

2
Constant Velocity
2.4 Acceleration
2.5 Motion Diagrams
2.6 Analysis Model: Particle Under
Constant Acceleration
2.7 Freely Falling Objects

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 A particle’s position x is the location of the particle with respect to a chosen reference point that we can consider to be the
origin of a coordinate system. The motion of a particle is completely known if the particle’s position in space is known at all
times.

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 The displacement Dx of a particle is defined as its change in position in some time interval. As the particle moves from an
initial position xi to a final position xf , its displacement is given by

Distance is the length of a path followed by a particle.

Displacement is an example of a vector quantity. Many other physical quantities, including position, velocity, and
acceleration, also are vectors. In general, a vector quantity requires the specification of both direction and magnitude. By
contrast, a scalar quantity has a numerical value and no direction.

The average velocity vx,avg of a particle is defined as the particle’s displacement Dx divided by the time interval Dt during
which that displacement occurs:

The average speed vavg of a particle, a scalar quantity, is defined as the total distance d traveled divided by the total time
interval required to travel that distance:

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 (c) A particle moves in the +x direction and then reverses the direction of its motion.

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 Often we need to know the velocity of a particle at a particular instant in time t rather than the average velocity over a
finite time interval Dt. In other words, you would like to be able to specify your velocity just as precisely as you can specify
your position by noting what is happening at a specific clock reading, that is, at some specific instant.

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When the velocity of a particle changes with time, the particle is said to be accelerating. For example, the magnitude
of a car’s velocity increases when you step on the gas and decreases when you apply the brakes. Let us see how to
quantify acceleration.

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 It is well known that, in the absence of air resistance, all objects dropped near
the Earth’s surface fall toward the Earth with the same constant acceleration
under the influence of the Earth’s gravity

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