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Motion
Two branches of Newtonian mechanics1:
Kinematics: describes motion without consideration of the causes of motion.
Dynamics: concerned with the study of forces and torques2 and their effect on motion.
Definition of Concepts Related to the Study of Motion:
Time: Physicists define time as simply a measure of change. If nothing changes then it
is impossible to measure time.
Displacement: Displacement is the shortest distance from the initial to the final position
of a point. It is the length of an imaginary straight path, typically distinct from the path
actually travelled. Displacement, unlike distance, is a vector3.
Velocity: Velocity is the change in displacement divided by the change in time. Velocity
is a vector and thus has magnitude4 and direction.
The average velocity (V) is equal to a change in displacement5 divided by change in
time:
(change in
Equation 2.1
Newtonian mechanics is also known also known as classical mechanics, a field in physics concerned
with the laws of motion.
2
Forces and torques (forces that cause a rotation) are the main causes of motion. Therefore, dynamics is
mostly concerned with these two.
3
A scalar is a quantity that has magnitude but no direction. A vector is a quantity that has both magnitude
and direction.
4
The absolute value of the magnitude of velocity is called the speed, which is a scalar.
5
Remember, displacement is a vector.
Therefore,
Consider for example a car which travelled 6.0 km in 15 min. What is the average
velocity of this car?
Solution. Using your equation 2.1:
)(
We have mentioned that whenever there is change, there is always a difference in the
initial and the final values:
Therefore,
) and accelerated to 90
in the first
)(
and
, then
and
Now using your equation 2.1 and assuming 2.4, we can deduce that the average
velocity is simply displacement6 over time:
Equation 2.4.a
Remember we treat
(change in distance) as
(change in displacement). This is technically incorrect because
distance is a scalar while displacement is a vector. However, we mentioned that we replaced the symbols for
convenience
Replace the
), we derive
Equation 2.5
(
meters. How much time will it take for the car to travel this distance at that velocity
(assuming velocity is constant, i. e. zero acceleration).
Solution. By manipulating equation 2.5 we deduce that
(
We can also combine equations 2.2 and 2.3 (assuming equation 2.4 is the case):
( )
Equation 2.6 is useful in cases where you want to know the final velocity of an object
but you dont know the distance traveled but you have knowledge of its initial velocity,
acceleration and the time it takes for that acceleration to happen.
Consider for example a runner from rest (
) accelerating to
)(
)(
we can calculate
the time it takes for this runner to stop. This can be done by algebraically manipulating
equation 2.6:
We can also combine equations 2.5 and 2.6 to obtain another equation. Equation 2.5 is
(
to replace the
:
(
(Note: this is to eliminate the final velocity in the equation so that even if you dont
know the final velocity you can still solve other problems.)
(
(
(
)
)
Equation 2.7
Consider for the previous example. The runner has an initial velocity of
decelerated to
and
seconds?
Solution. Note that the acceleration is
opposite direction:
)(
(
(
)
)
)(
)(
)
)
We can also combine equations 2.5 and 2.6 to obtain another equation that will
eliminate time instead of velocity. Equation 2.5 is
(
We can use equation 2.6
:
(
)(
Equation 2.8
Equation 2.8 is useful in finding velocities if we dont know the time but know the initial
velocity, the displacement covered, and the acceleration.
Consider for example a car accelerating from rest to
400 meters (assuming the acceleration is constant). What is the velocity of this car?
Solution. Use equation 2.8:
)(
)(
Equation 1:
Equation 2:
Equation 5:
(
(assuming
and
Equation 6:
Equation 7:
Equation 8:
(Note: s is displacement which is simply distance with direction in accordance to the
Cartesian coordinate)