EQUATIONS OF MOTION

The list below shows the symbols assigned for quantities in motion that will be used in equations of motion

● displacement : s
● initial velocity : u
● final velocity: v
● acceleration: a
● time: t
CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING SCENARIO

A school bus picks up a student from her house and sets off for towards her school. On the way the school bus stops at a
filling station (petrol pump). The distance between the student’s house and her school is 2.8 km (2800m). It takes a 30
minutes (1800 seconds) for the bus to complete the journey.

If someone asks you to what was the bus’s for the journey, you impulsively recall the equation speed = distance /time

If you actually calculate the speed, it is around 1.6 m/s

Now think carefully, did the bus travel at this speed throughout its entire journey? NO! It had stopped at the filling
station or it might have also stopped at the traffic signal. What speed is this? THIS IS THE AVERAGE SPEED
Whenever you use the equation speed = distance/time, it always gives you the average speed.

Now if you wanted to calculate the speed of the bus when it was crossing a lamppost, what equation would you use?
Certainly not the speed = distance/time! You would need to use an equation of motion. Speed = distance/time can only
be used to find the constant speed or the average speed. Speed/velocity at a certain instant, i.e. the instantaneous
speed cannot be found out by that equation if the body is accelerating or decelerating.

For a body that is accelerating and decelerating we use these equations

● v = u + at
● s = ut+ ½ at 2
● v2 = u2 + 2as
● s = (u+v) t
2

Which equation you would choose depends on the information given in the question. Let’s take a look:

Example 1: A car starts from rest and accelerates uniformly until it reaches a speed of 25m/s in 5s.
Calculate the acceleration of the car.
*When an object falls or rises freely (under gravity) the magnitude of the acceleration is always 9.81 m/s2

Example 2: Legend has it that Sir Isaac Newton came up with the theory of gravity when an apple fell from the tree on
his head. The apple falls freely from rest from a height of 1.5m above Newton’s head.
Calculate the velocity with which it hit’s his head.

ADVANCED CONCEPT

*The physics behind this will be discussed in the section - FORCES IN MOTION

Acceleration is a vector quantity and therefore whenever there are two directions involved, the directions are
distinguished using signs. REMEMBER when only one direction is involved, there is no need to assign signs

● In double motion (going up and then coming down) free fall, for the entire motion the acceleration is – 9.81 ms-2
● When a body is just going up acceleration is – 9.81 ms-2. This has nothing to do with direction. When a body is moving
upward, it decelerates. Deceleration is negative acceleration.
● When a body falls freely, the value of acceleration is just 9.81 ms-2

Displacement just like acceleration is also a vector quantity and directions must be
distinguished by assigning signs

The time lapse picture shows a man diving vertically from a platform into a pool

The platform is 50m above the surface of the pool

Since the motion of the diver is only in one direction i.e. vertically downward, we
don’t have to distinguish the directions.

Therefore the distance travelled by the diver is 50m

The displacement of the diver is also 50m

The acceleration (since only one motion downward) is 9.81 ms-2

 The adjacent diagram shows the time lapse image of another diver jumping from a
platform but this time jumping vertically upward first then landing 5m below the pool

The diver reaches a maximum height of about 1m above the platform.

If you consider the total distance travelled by the diver it will be 1m upward, then 1m
downward (until reaching the same level from which he jumped) then finally falling 5m
downward. Therefore the total distance travelled will be 1 + 1 + 5 = 7m
Now comes the most important part – DISPLACEMENT
Since displacement is a vector quantity and since there are multiple directions involved
here, the directions must be distinguished by assigning signs.
The displacement would be + 1m (upward) then – 1m (downward) and
finally – 5m downward. Therefore the total displacement would be –5m downward

Since it is double motion, the value of acceleration will be – 9.81ms-2

MATHEMATICAL EXAMPLES WITH ADVANCED CONCEPTS

The diver in the picture above jumps upward with a velocity of 4.43 ms-1.
(a) Calculate the maximum height reached by the diver. [2]

(b) Calculate the time of flight of the diver. [3]

MOTION GRAPHS

Motion graphs for uniform/constant acceleration (e.g. falling freely)

Motion graphs for uniform deceleration (e.g. rising freely)

Motion graphs for uniform acceleration and deceleration (e.g. ball thrown up in the air and caught when it comes back)