James Stankowi

z - 6A - Sep. 30, 2011

Dis ussion - 9/30/2011

One Dimension.

tion.

Every time you drive a ar, you are using one-dimensional mo-

The point of a ar is to move you along the road in time. This is x (t).
Your ar has a speedometer. This tells how qui kly the ar is moving along the
road (usually in mph, but if we lived in Europe, you'd see kph!). This number
shows up as v in your equations.
A velo ity is a bit dierent than speed be ause it has to tell the dire tion the ar
is moving. Fun thing to think about: does your speedometer work when driving in
reverse? DO NOT try this on a busy street! In one dimension, we have v.
The a elerator in reases the speed of the ar, and the brake (hopefully) de reases
the speed of the ar. Again for onstant a eleration this just shows up as a (or a
if the ar is slowing down).
There are only three main equations you HAVE to know for 1-dimensional motion
with onstant a eleration. Two of them are dire tly related to driving a ar
1
x (t) = x0 + v0 t + at2
2
v (t) = v0 + at.

The third omes from using algebra to eliminate t in the above equation, and leads
to
v 2 (t) = v02 + 2a (x (t) x0 ) .

Two other extremely important equations are the denitions of velo ity and a eleration:
v=

x
v
, a=
.
t
t

Near the surfa e of the earth, all obje ts experien e the same `gravitational for e'
pulling towards the earth. This is typi ally written as g = 9.81m/s2 and points
towards the earth. This means the sign an hange, depending on whi h way you
hoose to draw your axes for a problem! In fa t, it is important to be able to gure
out the sign of the a eleration based on the way the velo ity is pointing. Try it
out in the gures below.
1

James Stankowi z

6A

Sep. 30, 2011

Figure 1.

x
x
Trying to gure out whi h way a eleration points

Now let's try to apply these prin iples to help James Bond make a mira ulous
es ape!
Agent Bond is standing on a bridge, h [meters above the road
below, and his pursuers are getting too lose for omfort. He spots a atbed tru k
approa hing at v [m/s, whi h he measures by knowing that the telephone poles
the tru k is passing are d [meters apart in this ountry. The bed of the tru k is
h [meters above the road, and Bond qui kly al ulates how many poles away the
tru k should be when he jumps down from the bridge onto the tru k, making his
getaway. How many poles is it?
Problem 2.89:

Two Dimensions. It's all well and good to be able to solve problems in one
dimension, however we a tually live in a three dimensional world, so we need to be
able to solve problems in higher dimension. We'll start with two whi h will allow
us to introdu e ve tors.
Imagine trying to get to your friend's apartment. All he tells you is that you have
to walk 7 blo ks. Terrible friend! What he should tell you is how far you should
walk to the north, then how far you should walk east. If your friend new physi s
he ould even tell you to walk

x = ___blo ks i + ___blo ks j.

James Stankowi z

6A

Sep. 30, 2011

Get from here to here

Figure 2.

Getting to your friends house

If you wanted to gure out how far away from your apartment you were, you an
nd the magnitude of the ve tor using the Pythagorean theorem, and you an gure
out the angle with respe t to east using trigonometry. Alternatively, if you have a
problem where you are given the magnitude of the ve tor, and the angle, you an
onvert to x and y omponents! (We'll see that when we try to solve a problem.)
Whi h of the following are ve tors?
The speedometer reading on your ar.
The temperature in the room.
The pilot telling you over the inter om that you ying at 600 mi/hr NNE.
The Hammer Museum is 5 blo ks south of UCLA.
The Hammer Museum is 5 blo ks away from UCLA.
The dieren e between a strike and a ball in baseball.
Running into the wrong end zone from the 50 yard line.
Now let's see if we an't apply some of these ideas to help out a long-jumper!
A long jumper leaves the ground at 45 above the horizontal and
lands d [meters away. What is her "takeo" speed?
Problem 3.44.