One dimension implies motion along a straight line or in a single direction.

Consider a car or a
person driving down a straight road or jogging on a straight track. Think of an object being
tossed vertically into the air and then watching it fall. These are examples of one-dimensional
motion. There are four main factors to keep track of when evaluating the motion of objects.
Time, displacement, velocity, and acceleration are the four variables; time is a scalar quantity,
and the other three are vector quantities.

Table of Contents

 Distance and Displacement

 Speed and Velocity
 Acceleration
 Kinematic Equations when Acceleration Is Constant
 Frequently Asked Questions

Distance and Displacement

Distance travelled, or path length is the actual distance covered by the moving object in a given
interval of time. It is a scalar quantity.

The change in the position of the object along a particular direction is called displacement.

Displacement Δx = xf – x0

xf is the final position of the object.

x0 is the initial position of the object.

The difference between your ending position (xf) and your beginning point (xo) is known as
displacement.

Displacement is a vector quantity. This means it has direction and magnitude, and it is visually
depicted as an arrow pointing from the starting point to the ending location. Your displacement is
5 metres north if you start in a specific location and then move north 5 metres from where you
started. Then, if you turn around and return with a 5 m south displacement, you will have
travelled a total distance of 10 m, but your net displacement will be zero because you are back
where you began.
Speed and Velocity
The time rate of change of the position of the particle is called speed. Speed tells about how fast
or how slow the particle is moving. It gives the distance covered by the particle in unit time.
Speed is a scalar quantity, and its SI unit is m/s. The speed of the object will never be negative; it
will either be positive or zero.

The time rate of change of position of an object in a particular direction is called velocity.
Velocity can be defined as the time rate of change of displacement. Also, speed in a particular
direction can be called velocity. Velocity is a vector quantity with both direction and magnitude.
The unit of velocity is m/s. The value of velocity can be positive, negative or zero.

Average Speed and Average Velocity

The average speed of motion of a particle is defined as the ratio of the time travelled to the
elapsed time.

Average speed = total path length/total time taken

Average velocity is defined as the total displacement by the body in time t.

Average velocity = total displacement/total time

Vavg = (Δx/Δt) = (xf – x0)/(tf – t0)

Vavg = average velocity

Δx = change in position

Δt = change in time

xf and x0 are the beginning and ending positions at time tf and t0, respectively.

Instantaneous Velocity

If we consider an infinitesimally small time interval, we get more detailed information. The
average velocity becomes the instantaneous velocity for an infinitesimally small interval of time
or the velocity at a single moment over such a time range. A car’s speedometer displays the
instantaneous speed. However, for calculating the time taken to travel from one point to another,
average velocity is needed. The average velocity at a specific point in time or across an
infinitesimally brief time interval is called instantaneous velocity. The instantaneous velocity can
be found by taking limits.

�=limΔ�→0Δ�Δ�
Uniform Velocity

A body is said to be moving with uniform velocity if equal changes of displacement take place in
equal intervals of time, however small these intervals of time may be. When the body moves
with uniform velocity, neither the magnitude nor the direction of velocity changes.

Acceleration
Any process in which the velocity varies is referred to as acceleration. As velocity involves both
speed and direction, a body gets accelerated when there is a change in speed, direction or both. If
there is no change in the speed or direction of the object, there will not be any acceleration, no
matter how quickly the object moves. A jet moving at 800 miles per hour along a straight line
has zero acceleration, despite the fact that it is moving very quickly. It will have acceleration
while it lands because the jet is slowing down.

Average acceleration is defined as the rate of change of velocity with time.

a = (Δv/Δt)= (vf – vi)/Δt

vi = initial velocity

vf = final velocity

Δt = time

The SI unit of acceleration is m/s2.

The instantaneous acceleration is

�=limΔ�→0Δ�Δ�=����
.
Uniform or Constant Acceleration

A body is said to be moving with uniform or constant acceleration if its velocity changes by
equal amounts in equal intervals of time, however small these time intervals may be. When the
body moves with constant acceleration, the average and instantaneous acceleration of the body
are equal.

Kinematics Equation when the Acceleration Is Constant

A particle moving along a straight line with constant acceleration is said to execute uniformly
accelerated motion in one dimension. This type of motion is the simplest kind of accelerated
motion. The velocity of the particle changes at the same rate throughout the motion. Some
simple equations which relate displacement (S), initial velocity (u), final velocity (v), time taken
(t), and uniform acceleration (a) can be obtained, and these equations are called kinetic equations
for the one-dimensional motion of the particle. The equations are as follows:

1. v = u + at

v = final velocity

u = initial velocity

a = uniform acceleration

t = time taken

2. S = ut + (½)at2

S = displacement

u = initial velocity

t = time taken

a = uniform acceleration

3. v2 = u2 + 2aS

v = final velocity

u = initial velocity

a = uniform acceleration

S = displacement
4. Sn = u + (a/2)(2n – 1)

Sn = displacement in the nth second of motion.

5. a = (S2 – S1)/n2

S2 and S1 are the displacements in two consecutive equal intervals of time ‘n’.