Motion in One Dimension In physics, that is best describe as going

forward or backwards only.

Lesson 2 – Part 2

Distance and Displacement

Position and Reference Point Distance
POSITION is a measurement of a The total length of the path travelled by an
location, with reference to an origin. Positions can object while moving from an initial position to a
therefore be negative or positive. final position.
Depending on what reference point we A scalar quantity.
choose, we can say that the school is 300 m from
Joan’s house (with Joan’s house as the reference Unit: meter (m)
point or origin) or 500 m from Joel’s house (with
It is denoted by s.
Joel’s house as the reference point or origin).

Displacement
The object’s overall or net change in
position.
A vector quantity.
Unit: meter (m).
It is denoted by x.

Motion Displacement can be equal to distance when path

travelled is straight line.
When there is movement, there is motion.
An object in motion if it changes position,
relative to a reference point.
That is, for an object to be in motion, it
must move from its initial position to a final
position.
Motion is defined as a change in position
with respect to a reference point.
A reference point or origin is
defined as a fixed point or fixed object with
respect to which the given body changes its
position.
Speed
Speed is a measurement of how fast an
Motion in one dimension object moves relative to a reference point. It does
not have a direction and is considered a scalar
One-dimensional motion is the simplest quantity.
form of motion.
Speed can be figured by the formula.
This is motion that takes place in two
directions.
 The speed of light is 299, 792, 458
meters per second. In physics this number is
represented by the letter “c”.
In science and physics the standard unit of
measure for speed is generally meters per second
or m/s.
Other units of speed such as kilometers per Light travels the fastest in a vacuum and
hour (km/h) or miles per hour (mph) are the slowest in solid.
sometimes used.
Light does not involve any medium
The measurement of speed can reflect two and can even travel without a medium.
different scalar quantities.
Sound travels the fastest in solid and
1. Instantaneous Speed – the speed of slowest in air.
an object at a given moment.
A speedometer is a great example Sound needs a medium to be
of instantaneous speed. transmitted, and the best medium for sound
The speedometer of a car reveals transmission is solid.
information about the
instantaneous speed of your car. It
shows your speed at a particular Velocity
instant in time.
Velocity is the rate of change in an
object’s position.
2. Average Speed – It represents the How fast the object is moving and in
speed of an object throughout its which direction.
travels.
A vector quantity. It has a magnitude
Average speed is a measure of (speed) and a direction.
distance travelled in a given period
of time. Like a speed, you can describe either the
velocity at a specific moments (instantaneous
velocity) or the average velocity over a time
period.
Velocity has the same unit of measurement
as speed, m/s.
Also, kilometeres per hour (km/h), or
miles per hour (mph).

Speed and Velocity

Interesting Facts about Speed Speed is scalar quantity and Velocity is a
vector quantity.
The first scientist to measure speed as
distance over time (s = d/t) was Galileo. Speed is a magnitude of velocity.

The fastest possible speed in the universe Velocity is the speed of an object plus its
is the speed of light. direction.
 Acceleration Deceleration or Negative
Acceleration is the measurement of change Acceleration
in an object’s velocity. When the velocity or an object decrease
An object is accelerating when: (slow down) this is called deceleration. It may
also be represented by a negative acceleration.
a. It is travelling in one direction with This means the direction or vector of the
changing speed (either speeding up or acceleration is pointing in the opposite direction
slowing down), of the movement of the object.
b. Moving at a constant speed but
changes its direction, and If the velocity of an object changes from
c. When it changes both the speed and its 40 m/s to 10 m/s over time interval of 2 seconds
direction. the average acceleration would be:

Slowing down is called deceleration.

The SI unit of acceleration is meters per
second per second (m/s/s) or meters per second
squared (m/s2).
Kilometeres per hour per hour (km/h/h or Constant Acceleration
km/h ) and miles per hour per hour (mi/h/h or
2

mi/h2) are sometimes used. When an object is changing velocity by a

constant amount over time, this is called constant
change in velocity
Acceleration = acceleration.
time
An object with constant positive
ΔV V f −V i
a= a= acceleration will be going faster and faster. Its
t t velocity will be increasing constantly.

Motion Graphs
In order to describe the motion a given
object, you need to know its position. When you
know the point of reference, you will be able to
determine how far it is moving, and the direction
to where it is moving.
Using motion graphs, you will be able to
show the change in the object’s position over
time. You will also know if the object’s speed is
increasing, decreasing or constant and whether it
is moving or not.
 Displacement-Time Graphs
A horizontal line parallel to the x-axis has
a slope of zero as shown in the graph and indicates
that the object is not moving. The object has zero
velocity.
A constant positive slope represented by a
diagonal line moving upward in the graph means
POSITION-TIME GRAPHS are motion
that the object is moving with a constant velocity.
graphs that show a change in an object’s location
over time. In this type of graph, time is always A constant negative slope means that an
plotted on the x – axis and the position is plotted object is moving with a constant velocity but in
on the y – axis. the reverse direction of the positive direction.
When a graph is plotted in terms of the A curved line indicates that the
distance travelled by the object and the time it instantaneous velocity is changing at every given
took to cover that distance, the graph can be called point in time.
distance-time graph. On the other hand, if the
graph is plotted in terms of displacement and time,
it is called displacement-time graph.
The distance-time graph can tell us
how far an object has moved with respect to time.
A displacement-time graph can
show us if an object is going backwards or
forwards (direction) which cannot be shown on a
distance-time graph.

Distance-Time Graphs
The horizontal straight line in the graph
means that the slope is equal to zero indicating
Distance-Time Graphs
that the object is at rest or not moving.
The slope of the graph is equal to zero, but
The diagonal line that slopes upward to the
this does not mean that the object is not moving.
right shows a constant and positive slope. This
The straight horizontal line signifies that the speed
indicates that distance is increasing constantly
of the object is constant. It is not changing over
with time. The object moves at a constant speed.
time.
Curved lines indicated that speed is
The sloping line shows that the speed of
changing.
the object is changing. In this graph, the object is
In this graph, the line curving increasing in speed. The upward slope to the right
upwards shows that the objects is increasing its indicates that the object is speeding up.
speed. As time passes, the change in distance
A horizontal line along the x-axis in this
increases.
graph means that the object is not moving. As
In this graph, the line curving time passes, the object remains stationary.
downwards shows that the object is decreasing its
In this graph, the line slopes downward
speed. The change in distance decreases as time
from left to right which shows that the object is
passes.
slowing down.
 threaded to a device that puts a ‘tick’ or
impression on the tape at regular time intervals.
This creates a line of dots that represents the
object’s motion as the tape is pulled.

Analyzing Ticker Tape Diagrams

If a ticker tape diagram has spaces
between dots that are not changing all throughout,
then this indicates that the object was moving at a
constant speed.

Velocity-Time Graphs
The ticker tape diagram that starts off with
A horizontal line with a slope of zero in closely spaced dots but move further apart as you
the graph indicates that the object is moving with go along represents that the object was speeding
a constant velocity. Therefore, the object has zero up. This means that the further apart the dots are
acceleration. on the tape, the fasters the object moved.
A constant positive slope indicates that the
velocity of an object is increasing by a constant
amount of each second. Thus, the object is moving
in constant acceleration. The ticker tape diagram that starts with
A constant negative slope means that the dots spaced further apart and gets closer as you go
velocity of an object is decreasing by a constant along indicates that the object was slowing down
amount each second. This indicates that the object because the dots are getting close and closer
is moving in constant deceleration. together.

A curve line in the graph indicates that the

rate of the object’s acceleration is increasing.

Remember
Always remember that in a ticker tape
diagram, if the spacing of the dots is changing,
this represents that the speed is changing. A
changing speed would mean that there is
acceleration.
There are different situations that result to
acceleration changing speed, changing direction
Ticker Tape and changing both speed and direction.
An object that decreases in speed is
One way of analyzing motion is using
negatively accelerating or simply decelerating.
ticker tape.
Hence, acceleration does not only refer to objects
A ticker tape diagram is the line of dots on with increasing speed.
the tape that is created when a long tape is
attached to an object that is moving. The tape is