| Where are you? Where are you going? How fast?
These are questions that are addressed quantitatively in physics using position, coordinates, displacement, speed, and velocity.
An important distinction among some of these quantities is that some are scalars and some are vectors.
In this chapter you will learn the equations of motion for displacement and velocity and use these to solve increasingly difficult problems—and how to tell from a graph whether an object is moving quickly or slowly.
| | By the end of this chapter you should be able to
| | distinguish between position and displacement and between speed and velocity;
| | solve multiple displacement problems in one and two dimensions;
| | write down the equations of motion for constant velocity;
| | solve one- and two-step problems using those equations;
| | draw, analyze, and interpret position–time and velocity–time graphs; and
| | describe motion in different frames of reference.
|
| | 3A: Displacement
3B: Motion graphs
|
| | |