ONE-DIMENSIONAL KINEMATICS

Lesson Objectives

• 1. Define displacement and average speed, and

velocity;
• 2. Formulate mathematical description from verbal
description of a physical situation involving uniform
acceleration in one dimension;
• 3. Relate the learned concept to real-life situations.
 How far does the ant crawl?

Answer: The ant crawls 7 cm or d = 7cm.

 1. Find the displacement of the ant.

• Distance traveled: 5 cm + 2cm = 7cm

• Displacement (∆x) is the difference between an object’s final position and its
starting position. It does depend on direction.
• Displacement = final position – initial position
• ∆x = xfinal – xinitial
• Answer: The ant crawled 3 cm due east.
 2. A car drives 100 meters in 5 seconds. What
is the car’s average speed?

• Speed, a scalar quantity refers to the rate of motion. It is the ratio

of distance covered and the time of travel. Like distance, speed
does not depend on direction. [ Speed = distance / time ]
• Average speed is the total distance divided by the total time. It is
used to determine speed which is not constant.
3. AJ runs 200 meters north and turned 50.0 meters
south in about 24.2 seconds. What is his velocity?
A snake crawls 5 m east, then 3 m west in 20 seconds. What
is its distance traveled, displacement, average speed and
average velocity?