Instruction: Fill in the blanks according to the teacher’s presentation.

Analytical Description of Movement from a Position Function x(t)

1) ____Distance___and ______Displacement_ have different definitions in Physics.

2) _____Distance_______: Is the length of the real path followed by an object.
3) ____Displacement _: Is the separation in a straight line between two points, the final and
initial position, and it goes into a precise direction.
4) ____Displacement _: It is a vector quantity, so it has magnitude and direction.
5) ____ Distance _: It only has magnitude so it’s a scalar quantity.
6) _____ Distance _: We normally use d or s (commonly for curve trajectory) to represent it
on formulas.
7) _____ Distance __: Also, we can use the variable x if we talk about a horizontal trajectory.
8) ____Displacement ___: To represent it in formulas we use D, remember that is bold
because it is a vector.
9) _____Displacement __: Sometimes, it is also called change of position.

10) Just like the concepts of distance and displacement are mixed, same happens
with__speed____ and______velocity________
11) ______Speed_______: Is the travelled distance per unit of time. It is a scalar quantity.

12) The horizontal line at the top of the variable v means ___average___ ____velocity____
13) That assumes that the object is not travelling in that____speed_____ all the time;
however, it is obtaining an average among the total distance and time.
14) ______Velocity____: Is the displacement per unit of time. It is a vector quantity.

15) The____velocity______ shown in the formula is average, because we assume that the
______velocity________ is not always travelling in that ____speed___ during the whole
____displacement__________.
 Problems

16) A woman runs 200 m, east; then she changes the direction and runs 300 m, west. If the
whole trip takes 60 s, what are the average speed and the average velocity?

d = 200 + 300 = 500 m

The total distance travelled was: 8.3 m/s

d/t= 500m/60s= 8.3 m/s

17) In other hand, to obtain the displacement, we assume that the initial position was 0 m,
then we add 200 m (right = positive) and then we subtract 300 m (left = negative):

D = +200 m - 300 m = -100 m

That means the displacement was 100 m to the left or west.

Now, we can find the average velocity: -1.67 m/s

18) But, what happens if we need the speed or velocity at point C? (In that particular
__instant_____)
19) Instantaneous speed is a _____scalar quantity___ that represents the speed in that
instant in which the object is at a given point C. Thus, it is the rate of change of distance
over time.
20) Instantaneous velocity is a ___vector quantity___ that represents the vi velocity at any
point C. This, is the rate of change of the displacement over time.
21) Almost every time, the velocity of an object is going up or down when it moves. This
phenomenon is called ____acceleration____.
 22) Acceleration is the rate of change of ____velocity______ per unit of time. It is a
____vector quantity______.

In this topic we will study the simplest kind of acceleration, which is _____linear motion_____,
where the acceleration is constant, so these will simplify the last equation:

his means we are not directly doing vector operations, however the positive or negative sign
will have a great effect on the initial and final velocities, and on the acceleration.

The sign convention to use will be the following:

23) A _____positive___ velocity means that an object is moving to the_____right____.

24) A negative velocity means that an object is moving to the _____left____.
25) A ___positive____ acceleration when an object is moving to the right, means that its
velocity will ___increase_____ to the right too.
26) A negative _____acceleration___ when an object is moving to the right, means that its
velocity will _____decrease_________ to the right too.
27) A positive acceleration when an object is moving to the___left____, means that its velocity
will increase to the left too.
28) A____negative____ acceleration when an object is moving to the left, means that its
velocity will _____decrease___ to the left too.

Additionally, we will assume any initial position as __x=0___. If the final position is
___positive___, it means that the object is at the right of the _____origin_____ point; if the
final position is ____negative___ it means that is at left of it.

Problems

29) A car moves to the east at 20 m/s and finds a strong wind ahead that makes it change
the direction. After 5 seconds, the car is travelling at 5 m/s towards west. What is its
acceleration?

The initial velocity of the car is positive because it is moving to the right. The final velocity is
negative because it moves to the left: -5m/s2

a= vf-vO /t = (-5) - (+20)/5= -25/5= -5m/s2

In order to solve uniform acceleration exercises, we will use five equations all based in the
concepts above:

Where

v0= initial speed

vf= final speed

t= time

a= acceleration

x= average acceleration

As you notice there are five variables in these equations. When you read an exercise you should be
able to identify three of them and with that data find the missing two ones.

Problems

30) A plane initially flies at 400 ft/s and lands on the deck of an aircraft carrier stopping after
travelling a 300 ft distance. What is the acceleration? What is the braking time?

Tip: We assume that the plane was flying to the right, so its initial velocity is positive. The
exercise says that it stops, so the final velocity must be zero. If we take the point where it lands
and begins to brake as the initial position and the point where it stopped as the final position, the
braking distance was 300 ft:

Tip: There are many possible ways to solve this exercise. One could be finding the acceleration
with the fifth equation and then find the time solving for it in equations #2. Other way will be
solving for the time in equation #1 and then solving for the acceleration in equation #2. Any choice
should give us the same results:
Note: if we apply the signs and algebra correctly, the equation will show the correct value for time,
which is a small value because the acceleration was very big, given that the plane was flying at a
great velocity and want to stop in a relative short distance.

Movement Description from Position and Velocity Graphs

We can have three kinds of graphs to analyze the motion of an object:

31) ______________
32) ______________
33) ______________

34) Each one of these variables will always be located at the ______________, so all the graphs
____________________________, and the ______________ will be always at the x-axis.

Instruction: Match each graph with its corresponding explanation/description.

35) ______ First, if the velocity is constant, it means the acceleration is zero, so the velocity will
not decrease nor increase. As we can see in the last graph, the acceleration (green) is always 0,
thus the velocity (red) does not increase nor decrease and remains constant. This causes that the
position graph (blue) is a line with a positive slope.

36) ______ The behavior of a negative constant velocity. The velocity (red) is still being constant
but negative the whole time, the acceleration (green) remains at 0 and the position graph (blue) is
also a line but with negative slope which means that the object is moving to the left and is at the
left of the origin point.

37) ______If we have a constant acceleration value, different to cero, the behavior of the graphs
will change. It is important to notice that the value of the initial velocity is important. If we assume
that it begins at 0. The acceleration (green) has a positive value and remains constant; the velocity
(red) begins at 0 and because the constant acceleration it is increasing in a linear fashion, so its
graph is a line with a positive slope. Because these, the position increases creating the right side of
a parabola open to the positive y-axis.

38) ______If the initial velocity is 0, but now the constant acceleration has a negative value. The
velocity changes in a linear fashion but negatively, that means we have a negative slope. The
position graph now is the right side of a parabola opening to the negative y-axis.

39) ______ If we have an initial positive velocity but there is a negative acceleration. The initial
velocity begins at a positive value, but because there is a negative and constant acceleration, the
velocity decreases until it is 0, that is when it touches the x-axis. At the beginning, the position
starts to increase but just when the velocity is 0 and keeps decreasing being negative, the position
starts to diminish too, that means that the object returns to the initial position and now goes to
the left side of the origin point.
Rate of change: velocity and acceleration

40) The rate of change in velocity: it refers to how the ______________ is changing
regarding to time.

For example, a constant speed of 8 m/s indicates that the object moves 8 meters per second.

41) This concept is ______________ related to the average ______________ defined

previously. When this change occurs in a very short time, is called
______________

42) Instantaneous velocity: it refers to how the displacement of the object changes
(____________________________), but in an infinitesimally small time, it is
mathematically expressed as:

43) The ______________as a rate of change: it refers to how the velocity is changing with
respect to time.

For example, an object with a constant acceleration of 3 m/s2, means that the object increases its
speed 3 m every second.

44) This concept is directly related to the ______________ acceleration defined in

previous sections. When this change occurs in a very short time, it is called
______________ ______________.

45) ______________: it refers to how the velocity of the object changes (rate of change),
but in an infinitesimally small time, it is mathematically expressed as:

46) The end of a robot arm moves to the right to 8 m/s. Four seconds later, it moves to the left at 2
m/s. What is the speed change and what is the acceleration?
47) An arrow accelerates from 0 to 40 m/s in 0.5 s that is in contact with the rope of a bow. What
is the average acceleration?

48) A car moves initially at 50 km/h and accelerates 4 m/s 2 during 3 s. What is the final speed?

49) In the deck of an aircraft carrier, a braking device allows to stop a plane in 1.5 s. The average
acceleration was 49 m/s2. What is the braking distance? What was the initial speed?

50) The Sears Tower in Chicago is 443 m tall. Joe wants to set the world’s stair climbing record and
runs all the way to the roof of the tower. If Joe’s average upward speed is 0.60 m/s, how long will
it take Joe to climb from street level to the roof of the Sears Tower?

51) In 1935, a French destroyer, La Terrible, attained one of the fastest speeds for any standard
warship. Suppose it took 2.0 min at a constant acceleration of 0.19 m/s2 for the ship to reach its
top speed after starting from rest. Calculate the ship’s final speed.
52) In 1993, Ileana Salvador of Italy walked 3.0 km in under 12.0 min. Suppose that during 115 m
of her walk Salvador is observed to steadily increase her speed from 4.20 m/s to 5.00 m/s. How
long does this increase in speed take?