Lesson 2: Speed, Velocity and Acceleration

Contents: Distance and Displacement Instantaneous Speed and Velocity Average and constant acceleration Introduction When we say a track event at the Athletics Meet is 800 m long, we are defining its distance. However we are interested in is the time taken to run it. The shorter the time is the better since the winner will have run the fastest overall. This means that they covered the same distance as others in a shorter time. Distance is a scalar measure of the interval between two locations measured along the actual ath connecting them. Displacement is a vector measure of the interval between two locations measured along the shortest ath connecting them.

Speed of an object is a measure of how fast something is travelling. Speed is the rate of change of distance with time. It is a scalar quantity. ! eed " distance travelled Time taken

!# unit of s eed is m$s but there are other units such as miles$hr or km$h Instantaneous speed is the speed at which the object is currently traveling at the moment. %or e&am le, if you are driving along the 'haa(ee Magu and look down at the s eedometer, your instantaneous s eed at that moment would be what is dis layed on your s eedometer. When you travel in a vehicle s eed varies through out the )ourney due to many reasons. This means your instantaneous s eed of the vehicle changes according to the s eedometer.

Distance Time Graph The distance*time gra h shows how the distance traveled by an ob)ect varies with time.

The gradient +slo e, of the distance*time gra h gives us s eed. The gradient is given by the change in distance +rise, - time taken +distance along y*a&is,.

#f the gradient is stee er, the s eed is greater. #f the gra h is curved, it means that the s eed of the ob)ect is changing. The gradient of the gra h tells us how the s eed is changing. .ike s eed, Velocity is measured in m$s and indicates the s eed at which an ob)ect travels. /elocity is a vector 0uantity so it has both magnitude and direction. Instantanous Velociy is the velocity at which the object is currently traveling at the moment. The magnitude of instantaneous velocity can be found on the s eedometer and a com ass is re0uired to find the direction of travel. Average velocity is the overall velocity at which you traveled in a journey. Average /elocity " 1istatance moved in a rticular direction +1is lacement, Total Time taken

Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity. Acceleration is a vector 0uantity since velocity is a vector. Acceleration can be changed either by changing the magnitude or direction of the velocity. %or e&am le, if a car is travelling northwards and increasing its velocity, the car is accelerating. #f the car is reducing its s eed and travellng to same direction, then we say the car is decelerating 1eceleration is numerically e0ual to negative acceleration. !imilarly if the car has a steady s eed and chaging its direction, we say the car is accelerating too. Average acceleration " 2hange in velocity Time Taken " v !u t

Where v is final velocity, u is initial velocity and t is time taken When rate of change of velocity is same, we get constant or uni"orm acceleration. Vlocity!time Graph A velocity*time gra h has the velocity or s eed of an ob)ect on the vertical a&is and time on the hori(ontal a&is. The distance travelled can be calculated by finding the area under a velocity*time gra h. Acceleration is the gradient of a velocity*time. The following figure shows a car in motion. #t increased its velocity from 0 m$s to 34 m$s in 5 s.

The foolwing table shows how the velocity of the car in the diagram above changes with time. Time #s$ 0 3 4 6 5 Velocity #m%s$ 0 6 7 8 34 Acceletation #m%s2$ at rest 6 6 6 6

Velocity-time graph
14 12 Velocity (m/s) 10 8 6 4 2 0 0 1 2 Time (s) 3 4

The above gra h shows the motion of the same car. A straight line with a ositive gradient means, the car is accelerating uniformly. The gradient of the gra h gives us the magnitude of this acceleration and area under the gra h +line, is numerically e0uals to the total distance traveled. Acceleration " gradient " / " t 34 9 7 " 6 m$s4 5* 4

Total distance traveled in 5 s is " Area under the gra h " Area of a triangle " : bh " : & 5 & 34 " 45m The following figure shows a ty ical velocity*time gra h.

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