Chapter 2 Motion Along a Straight Line

2-0. Mathematical Concept

2.1. What is Physics?
2.2. Motion
2.3. Position and Displacement
2.4. Average Velocity and Average Speed
2.5. Instantaneous Velocity and Speed
2.6. Acceleration
2.7. Constant Acceleration: A Special Case
2.8. Another Look at Constant Acceleration
2.9. Free-Fall Acceleration
2.10. Graphical Integration in Motion Analysis
 Trigonometry
Example 1 Using Trigonometric Functions
On a sunny day, a tall building casts a shadow that is 67
.2 m long. The angle between the sun’s rays and the gro
und is =50.0°, as Figure 1.6 shows. Determine the hei
ght of the building.
 Trigonometric Functions
h0 h0
sin  sin ( )
1

h h
ha
cos 
ha
cos ( )
1

h h
h0 h0
tan  tan ( )
1

ha ha
PYTHAGOREAN THEOREM

h
h
2
h 2
0
2
a
Example 1 Using Trigonometric Functions

On a sunny day, a tall bui

lding casts a shadow that
is 67.2 m long. The angle
between the sun’s rays a
nd the ground is =50.
0°, as Figure 1.6 shows.
Determine the height of t
he building.
What is the location of downtown Wilmington?
N̂

Market St. is 6°

north of east

Ŵ Ê

To specify a location downtown,

it’s more convenient to use the
Market St./ 3rd St. coordinate system
than the East/North coordinate
system

Ŝ
Defining a Coordinate System

One-dimensional coordinate system consists of:

• a point of reference known as the origin (or zero point),

• a line that passes through the chosen origin called a coor

dinate axis, one direction along the coordinate axis, chos
en as positive and the other direction as negative, and th
e units we use to measure a quantity
 Scalars and Vectors
• A scalar quantity is one that can be described with a sin
gle number (including any units) giving its magnitude.

• A Vector must be described with both magnitude and dir

ection.

A vector can be represented by an arr

ow:
•The length of the arrow represents th
e magnitude (always positive) of the
vector.
•The direction of the arrow represents
the direction of the vector.
 A component of a vector along an axis (o
ne-dimension)
A UNIT VECTOR FOR
A COORDINATE AXIS
is a dimensionless vect
or that points in the dire
ction along a coordinat
e axis that is chosen to
be positive.

A one-dimensional vector can be constructed by:

•Multiply the unit vector by the magnitude of the vector
•Multiply a sign: a positive sign if the vector points to the same d
irection of the unit vector; a negative sign if the vector points to t
he opposite direction of the unit vector.

A component of a vector along an axis=sign × magnitude

 Difference between vectors and scalars

• The fundamental distinction between scala

rs and vectors is the characteristic of direct
ion. Vectors have it, and scalars do not.

• Negative value of a scalar means how mu

ch it below zero; negative component of a
vector means the direction of the vector po
ints to a negative direction.
 Check Your Understanding 1

Which of the following statements, if any, involve

s a vector?
(a) I walked 2 miles along the beach.
(b) I walked 2 miles due north along the beach.
(c) I jumped off a cliff and hit the water traveling at
17 miles per hour.
(d) I jumped off a cliff and hit the water traveling str
aight down at 17 miles per hour.
(e) My bank account shows a negative balance of
–25 dollars.
Motion

• The world, and everythin

g in it, moves.
• Kinematics: describes m
otion.
• Dynamics: deals with th
e causes of motion.
 Frame of refe
relative
rence

displacement
Equation of
motion

Motion velocity

Graphical an
acceleration alysis

uniform

Uniformly acc Free fall

elerated

Projectile m
otion
• Motion is one of the most physical phenom
ena.
• Motion is divided into kinematics and dyna
mics.
• Kinematics is a quantitative description of
motion without reference to its physical ca
use.
• Dynamics is the study of the relationship b
etween motion and force.
Frame of Reference and Positio
n
• The term position refers to the location of
an object to some referenece frame.
• A reference frame is a physicacl entity suc
h as the ground, room or a building to whic
h motion or position of an object is being r
eferred.
• e.g. (we say that the gymnasium is 20 m t
o the right of the main gate. Our reference
in this example is the main gate).
 Person outside the bus

0 5 10

The bus moved away from the tree

The person is comparing the position of the bus with respect to the position of th
e tree

Reference (or origin) is position of the tree

 Person inside the bus

10 5 0

The tree moved away from the bus.

The person is comparing the position of the tree with respect to the position of th
e bus.

Reference (or origin) is position of the bus.

 Motion is relative

Both the observations are correct. The difference is what is taken as the origin.

Motion is always relative. When one says that a object is moving, he/she is co
mparing the position of that object with another object.

Motion is therefore change in position of an object with respect to another obje

ct over time.

Kinematics studies motion without delving into what caused the motion.
 Actual Path (2 km) Direct Path (1.1 km)

Q. How much distance do you have to travel to reach school?

Q. If you were to draw a straight line between your house and school, what wou
ld be the length of that line?
 Actual Path (2 km) Direct Path (1.1 km)

Q. How much distance do you travel in one round trip to the school?

Q. After one trip how far away are you from your home?
 Distance and Displacement
Distance = length of the actual path taken to go fr
om source to destination

Displacement = length of the straight line joining t

he source to the destination or in other words the l
ength of the shortest path
 Checkpoint
Suppose it was given that the person started by point A and walked in a straight
line for 5 km. Can you calculate the end point of his/her journey?

No, the person could be anywhere on th

e circle of 5 km radius.

A
Unless we know the direction of the motio
n we cannot calculate the end point of the j
ourney.
 Sample Problem
Rohit and Seema both start from their house. Rohit walks 2 km to the east while
Seema walk 1 km to the west and then turns back and walks 1 km.

Distance travelled by them is the same (2 km)

Is their displacement also the same?

No – Seema is back home and her displacement is 0 m.

This is because direction of motion is different in both cases.

You require both distance and direction to determine displacement.

Rate of Motion
 Sample Problem
The adjoining figure shows a Formula 1 rac
ing track. A driver is did 10 laps, what is th
e distance travelled by the driver at the end
r = 100 m of the race?

What is the displacement?

If the driver took 125.6 seconds to complet

e the laps, what is his speed and velocity in
km/hr?
One-dimensional position vector

• The magnitude of the position vector is a scalar that deno

tes the distance between the object and the origin.

• The direction of the position vector is positive when the o

bject is located to the positive side of axis from the origin a
nd negative when the object is located to the negative side
of axis from the origin.
 Displacement

• DISPLACEMENT is defined as the change of an object's

position that occurs during a period of time.

• The displacement is a vector that points from an object’s

initial position to its final position and has a magnitude th
at equals the shortest distance between the two position
s.
• SI Unit of Displacement: meter (m)
 Sample Problem
C
Distance AB = 3 km due East
Distance BC = 4 km due North

What is the distance travelled by a person who moves fr

om A to C via B?

What is the displacement? What is the direction of the d

isplacement?

A B

Distance travelled = 7 km, Displacement = 5 km from A towards C.

SEATWORK: Determine the displacement in the following cas
es:

(a) A particle moves along a line from

to

(b) A particle moves from to

(c) A particle starts at 5 m, moves to 2 m, and then returns to 5 m

 SEATWORK:
• Suppose that in going to school, you walke
d 40m east and 30 m north. (a) what was
the total distance that you walked? (b) wha
t was your total displacement? When you
arrived in school, you found out that classe
s were suspended because of bad weathe
r. You went back home following the same
path. (c) what was the distance you walke
d in going to school and back home? (d)
what was your total displacement?
 SEATWORK: Displacements
Three pairs of initial and final positions along
an x axis represent the location of objects
at two successive times: (pair 1) –3 m, +5
m; (pair 2) –3 m, –7 m; (pair 3) 7 m, –3 m.
• (a) Which pairs give a negative displacem
ent?
• (b) Calculate the value of the displacement
in each case using vector notation.
 Speed and Velocity
• Speed is the distanc that a body moves in
a unit time. Speed is a scalar quantity.
• When the speed of a body is associated wi
th a direction, the result is the velocity.
• Velocity is the time rate of change of positi
on. It is the displacement of a body per un
it time. The SI unit for speed and velocity i
s m/s.
 Velocity and Speed

A student standing still with

the back of her belt at a ho
rizontal distance of 2.00 m
to the left of a spot of the si
dewalk designated as the o
rigin.
A student starting to walk sl
owly. The horizontal positio
n of the back of her belt star
ts at a horizontal distance o
f 2.47 m to the left of a spot
designated as the origin. S
he is speeding up for a few
seconds and then slowing d
own.
 Average Velocity
D isp
lacem en
t
A
verag
evelo
city
=
E lapsedtime

x  x x2x
v  i 1
i
t t t2t1
• x2 and x1 are components of the position vectors at the
final and initial times, and angle brackets denotes the a
verage of a quantity.

• SI Unit of Average Velocity: meter per second (m/s)

Example 4 The World’s Fastest Jet-Engine Car

Figure (a) shows that the car fi

rst travels from left to right and
covers a distance of 1609 m (
1 mile) in a time of 4.740 s. Fi
gure (b) shows that in the reve
rse direction, the car covers th
e same distance in 4.695 s. Fr
om these data, determine the
average velocity for each run.
• Example 5: find the average velocity for t
he student motion represented by the gra
ph shown in Fig. 2-9 between the times t
1 = 1.0 s and t2 = 1.5 s.
 Average Speed

Average speed is defined as:

Check Your Understanding
A straight track is 1600 m in length. A runn
er begins at the starting line, runs due east
for the full length of the track, turns around,
and runs halfway back. The time for this ru
n is five minutes. What is the runner’s aver
age velocity, and what is his average spee
d?
 SEATWORK

You drive a beat-up pickup truck along a straight road for

8.4 km at 70 km/h, at which point the truck runs out of g
asoline and stops. Over the next 30 min, you walk anoth
er 2.0 km farther along the road to a gasoline station.

• (a) What is your overall displacement from the beginnin

g of your drive to your arrival at the station?

• (b) What is the time interval from the beginning of your d

rive to your arrival at the station? What is your average v
elocity from the beginning of your drive to your arrival at
the station? Find it both numerically and graphically. Sup
pose that to pump the gasoline, pay for it, and walk back
to the truck takes you another 45 min. What is your aver
age speed from the beginning of your drive to your retur
n to the truck with the gasoline?
 Instantaneous Velocity and Speed

xdxdx
vl
im  i

t0
t d
t d
t

• The instantaneous velocity of an object can be obtained

by taking the slope of a graph of the position component
vs. time at the point associated with that moment in time

• The instantaneous velocity can be obtained by taking a d

erivative with respect to time of the object's position.

• Instantaneous speed, which is typically called simply s

peed, is just the magnitude of the instantaneous velocity
vector,
 Example 7
The following equations give the position component,
x(t), along the x axis of a particle's motion in four situa
tions (in each equation, x is in meters, t is in seconds,
and t > 0): (1) x = (3 m/s)t – (2 m);
(2) x = (–4 m/s2)t2 – (2 m); (3) x = (–4 m/s2)t2;
(4) x = –2 m.
• (a) In which situations is the velocity of the particle co
nstant?
• (b) In which is the vector pointing in the negative x dir
ection?
How to Describe Change of Velocity ?
 Definition of Acceleration

Ch
ang
einv elo
city
A
ve
ragea
cce
le
ratio
n=
Ela
pse
d time
v2
v1 v
a 
t2
t1 t

SI Unit of Average Acceleration: meter p

er second squared (m/s2)
Instantaneous acceleration:

2
d
v ddx dx
a  ( ) 2
d
t d
tdt dt
• An object is accelerated even if all that changes i
s only the direction of its velocity and not its spe
ed.

• It is important to realize that speeding up is not a

lways associated with an acceleration that is pos
itive. Likewise, slowing down is not always assoc
iated with an acceleration that is negative. The r
elative directions of an object's velocity and acce
leration determine whether the object will speed
up or slow down.
 EXERCISE
A cat moves along an x axis. What is the sign of i
ts acceleration if it is moving
(a) in the positive direction with increasing speed,
(b) in the positive direction with decreasing speed,
(c) in the negative direction with increasing speed,
and
(d) in the negative direction with decreasing speed
?
 EXAMPLE 7: Position and Motion
A particle's position on the x axis of Fig. 2-1 i
s given by
with x in meters and t in seconds.
• (a) Find the particle's velocity function and
acceleration function .
• (b) Is there ever a time when vx 0 ?
• (c) Describe the particle's motion for t 0
Constant Acceleration: A Special Case
Free-Fall Acceleration
Equations of Motion with Constant Acceleration

v 2 x  v1 x  a x  t
1
 x  ( v1 x  v 2 x )  t
2
1
 x  v1 x  t  a x  t 2

2
v 2 x  v1 x  2 a x  x
2 2
 Example 8 A Falling Stone
A stone is dropped from r
est from the top of a tall
building, as Figure 2.17
indicates. After 3.00 s o
f free-fall,
(a) what is the velocity of th
e stone?
(b) what is the displaceme
nt y of the stone?
 Example 9 An Accelerating Spacecraft

The spacecraft shown in Figu

re 2.14a is traveling with a ve
locity of +3250 m/s. Suddenl
y the retrorockets are fired, a
nd the spacecraft begins to sl
ow down with an acceleratio
n whose magnitude is 10.0 m
/s2. What is the velocity of th
e spacecraft when the displa
cement of the craft is +215 k
m, relative to the point where
the retrorockets began firing
 Example 10

Spotting a police car, you brake your Porsche fro

m a speed of 100 km/h to a speed of 80.0 km/h
during a displacement of 88.0 m, at a constant a
cceleration.

• What is that acceleration?

• (b) How much time is required for the given decr

ease in speed?
 I
n
Graphical Integration
t in Motion Analysis
e
g
r
a
t
i
o
n
i
n
M
o
t
i
o
n
A
n
a
 Conceptual Question
1. A honeybee leaves the hive and travels 2 km before ret
urning. Is the displacement for the trip the same as the
distance traveled? If not, why not?

2. Two buses depart from Chicago, one going to New York

and one to San Francisco. Each bus travels at a speed
of 30 m/s. Do they have equal velocities? Explain.

3. One of the following statements is incorrect. (a) The car

traveled around the track at a constant velocity. (b) The
car traveled around the track at a constant speed. Whic
h statement is incorrect and why?
4. At a given instant of time, a car and a truck are traveli
ng side by side in adjacent lanes of a highway. The ca
r has a greater velocity than the truck. Does the car n
ecessarily have a greater acceleration? Explain.

5. The average velocity for a trip has a positive value. Is

it possible for the instantaneous velocity at any point
during the trip to have a negative value? Justify your
answer.

6. An object moving with a constant acceleration can cer

tainly slow down. But can an object ever come to a pe
rmanent halt if its acceleration truly remains constant
? Explain.