2 Mechanics

2.1 Motion
Definitions
Mechanics: The branch of physics dealing with motion and forces.

A force: is any interaction that causes a change in motion, shape, or energy.

Kinematics: The study of motion without regard to the forces affecting it.

Dynamics: The study of the effect that forces have on the motion of objects.

Statics: The study of forces without regard to motion. Technically, statics is the
study of forces in the absence of acceleration.
Kinematics
The idea of motion comes from observation.

Model motion - Mathematical models -> Predictions

Where is? How far? What direction? - Position, displacement, distance

How is it moving? How fast? What directions? - Speed, velocity

How is it changing its motion? Changes in speed or directions? Acceleration

Distance x Displacement
Distance Displacement
How much ground an object has Change in position of an object from
covered during its motion. origin, in a particular direction.

It has units of metres

It has units of metres
It is a scalar
(magnitude only) It is a vector
(magnitude and direction)

In this example:
Distance = π r In this example:
Displacement = 2 r (south)
How to represent it
Scalar quantities are italicized. Vector quantities bolded.

s0 = the initial position on a path,

s = the position on the path any time after that,

Δs = the space traversed going from the one position to another — the
distance.

s0 = the initial position vector,

s for the position vector any time after that

Δs = the change in position — the displacement.

Speed x Velocity
Speed Velocity
Rate of change of distance with respect Rate of change of displacement with
to time respect to time
Velocity = displacement
Speed = distance
time
time
It has units of ms-1 It has units of ms-1

It is a scalar It is a vector
(magnitude only) (magnitude and direction)
In this example: π r In this example: 2r (south)
t t
Instantaneous Speed
During a car journey, the car will
change speed a number of times.
The speedometer records this speed
and will read different values.

The speedometer records the

instantaneous speed of your car.

The instantaneous speed is the speed at a particular

instant in time
 Average Speed
Average speed is the averages of all
of the speeds over a given interval.

Average speed = Total

distance
time
Constant Speed
You will often see the term “constant
speed” or “steady speed” in physics
problems.

An object is travelling at a steady or

constant speed when its
instantaneous speed has the same
value throughout its journey.
What about Velocity?
In order to calculate the speed of an object we need to know how far it's
gone and how long it took to get there. A wise person would then ask:

What do you mean by how far? Do you want the distance or displacement?

● Average speed is the rate of change of distance with time.

● Average velocity is the rate of change of displacement with time.
● Instantaneous speed is the first derivative of distance with respect to
time.
● Instantaneous velocity is the first derivative of displacement with respect
to time.
Acceleration
When the velocity of an object changes it is said to be accelerating.
Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity with time.

Any change in the velocity of an object results in an acceleration:

● increasing speed
● decreasing speed
● or changing direction

Much like velocity, there are two kinds of acceleration: average and
instantaneous.
Average x Instantaneous Acceleration
Average acceleration is determined over a "long" time interval.

In contrast, instantaneous acceleration is measured over a "short" time

interval. The word short in this context means infinitely small or infinitesimal.

Instantaneous acceleration is then the limit of average acceleration as the

time interval approaches zero — or alternatively, acceleration is the derivative
of velocity.
SUVAT Equations
These equations of motion are valid only when acceleration is constant and
motion is constrained to a straight line.

Our goal in this section is to derive new equations that can be used to
describe the motion of an object in terms of its three kinematic variables:
velocity (v), position (s), and time (t). There are three ways to pair them up:

● velocity-time,
● position-time, and
● Velocity-position.
SUVAT Equations