KINEMATICS

IS THE STUDY OF MOVING OBJECTS

DR JOSEPHINE D’SILVA
 DISTANCE AND DISPLACEMENT
Distance is the length of the route taken by an object.
It is a scalar quantity - it has a magnitude (size) but no
direction.
it is always positive
Displacement is a quantity measuring the change in
position of an object.
It is the shortest possible distance covered between 2
points
It can be positive ,negative or zero
It is a vector quantity (i.e. it has a magnitude and
direction).
Examples
1. Ali walked 1 km to the North, 2. The displacement of an object
then 1 km to the East and followed from a fixed point is the distance
by 1 km to the South. What is the moved by the object
distance covered by Ali?
What is his final displacement? a. in a particular interval of time
b. in a particular direction
c. at a constant speed
Distance: 1+1+1=3km
d. at a constant velocity
Displacement: 1 km east of starting
point.
 Differences between
Distance and Displacement
 Speed is the distance travelled per unit of time.
SPEED Or Rate of change of distance
Or distance covered by a body in unit time

The SI unit of speed is meters per second.

 It is a scalar quantity
Speed is denoted by s or v
 Instantaneous speed
An object's speed at a given moment in Uniform speed
time is called its instantaneous speed. If the speed never changes, the object has
uniform speed.
It can change over time. It is the equal distance covered in equal
time intervals.
The instantaneous speed and the average
Average speed speed are then the same.
The average speed is the total
distance divided by the total time Non uniform speed
intervals
is the unequal distance covered in
unequal time intervals
 It is the rate of change of displacement with respect to time.

VELOCITY Or distance covered by a body in unit time in a specified

direction. Or speed in a particular direction.
It is a vector quantity
The velocity of an object is always in the
same direction as its displacement
Positive and negative numbers indicate
movements in opposite directions.
Average velocity is the total displacement
of an object in the total time taken
Question
1. A car travels 5 km due east and makes a U-turn back to travel a
further distance of 3 km. The car completes the journey in 0.3
hours.
Find: (a) The distance covered is 5+3=8 km.
(b) The displacement is 5−3=2 km due east of the
the distance covered; starting point
the displacement of the car; (c)speed=total distance travelled / total time
taken =80.3=26.7 km h−1
the average speed; (d)⟨v⟩=total displacement /total time taken
=20.3=6.67 km h−1 due east of starting point
the average velocity.
 is the rate of change of velocity with respect to

ACCELERATION time.
An object accelerates when its velocity changes
over time.
Like displacement and velocity , the
acceleration is a vector quantity.
The unit of acceleration is metres per
second squared . This is equal to the unit of
velocity divided by the unit of time
Deceleration
it is also known as negative acceleration or
retardation.
when the velocity of an object decreases, it
is undergoing deceleration.
The equation remains the same but the
initial speed is higher then the final speed so
the answer is in negative.
 Uniform acceleration
The average velocity during constant
An object is said to be undergoing uniform
acceleration along a straight line is:
acceleration when there is a constant
change in velocity per unit time.
Or the rate of change of velocity is the
same

Non uniform acceleration

is when the rate of change of
velocity is not the same. If the velocity of the object is constant,
the acceleration is zero.
Questions
1. A bus starts from rest and achieves a velocity of 20 m s−1 in 10 seconds while
moving to the right. Calculate its average acceleration.

Average acceleration:
⟨a⟩=v−u /t
=20−0 /10
=2 m s−2 towards the right

2. A car travelling westwards at 30 m s−130 m s−1 suddenly comes to a halt in 5 s. Find

its average acceleration.

⟨a⟩=v−ut
=0−305
=−6 m s−2 towards the west
Thinking, braking and stopping distance
To be a safe driver you need to understand
the factors that affect a car's stopping
distance.
The stopping distance depends on two
factors:
Thinking distance - It takes time for a driver
to react to a situation. During this reaction
time the car carries on moving. The thinking
distance is the distance travelled in between
the driver realising he needs to brake and
actually braking.
Braking distance - The braking distance is the
distance taken to stop once the brakes are
applied.
Factors that might increase stopping
distance
Thinking distance can be Braking distance can be increased
increased by: by:
greater speed
greater speed poor road conditions
tiredness (icy, wet)
alcohol and drugs car conditions
distractions (bald tyres, poor brakes,
full of people)
 DISTANCE-TIME GRAPH When we plot a Distance-time
graph, distance is plotted on the y-
axis and time on the X-axis.
10
1

DISTANCE
DISTANCE m
m

 Distance is directly proportional  Distance covered is constant for

to time every second
Gradient=constant=speed= d2-d1/t2-t1  Gradient=m= zero
 Object is moving at constant speed  Object is at rest
 Distance covered
by the object is
increasing for the
DISTANCE
m first 3s,
 after which it is
at rest
Non-uniform speed
For a distance-time graph,
the distance never decreases.
When the object is stationary, the
distance-time graph will be
horizontal.
The gradient of a distance-time
graph is the instantaneous speed of
the object.
For straight line with positive
gradient, it means that the object is
travelling at uniform speed
There is no straight line with
negative gradient (as the distance
never decreases)
For curves, it means that the object
is travelling at non-uniform speed
Displacement-time graphs
The details are similar as distance-time graphs, except that the distance is now
displacement, and speed is now velocity.
One minor difference: There is a straight line with negative gradient, it means that
the object is travelling at uniform velocity in the opposite direction.
 When we plot a speed time graph,
SPEED(or velocity)- speed is plotted on the y-axis and time
TIME GRAPHS on the x-axis.

Speed
(mls)
Gradient of the line = Area under the graph= distance travelled
acceleration =Distance travelled between 10-20s
= y2 - y1/ x2 - x1 = Area of trapezium ABCDE
=v2 - v1/t2 - t1 =1/2 x base x sum of parallel sides
= 36 - 18/ 20 – 10 =1/2 x 10 s x (18+36)ms-1
= 18ms-1 / 10s = 1.8 ms-2 = 270 m
 Uniform speed m= + constant
m=0 Acceleration= constant
Acceleration =0 Uniform increase in
speed

-m= -constant
-uniform deceleration
m= infinity
-uniform decrease in
acceleration =0 speed
-m=increasing -m=decreasing
-non unif acceleration -non unif acceleration
-non uniform increase in ( not decelerating)
speed -non uniform increase in speed at
a slower rate
Question
The velocity-time graph of a vehicle travelling with uniform acceleration is
shown in the diagram below.
Calculate the displacement of the vehicle at 40 s.
SPEED(or velocity)-TIME GRAPHS  When the object is stationary, it is a
straight horizontal line at 0.
 When the object is undergoing
uniform motion, it is a straight
horizontal line
 For straight line with positive
gradient, it means that the object
is accelerating.
 For straight line with negative
gradient, it means that the object
 For curves, it means that the acceleration of is decelerating.
the object is changing.  For a line below zero means the
 The area under the graph is the distance or objects speeds up in the opposite
the change in displacement of the object direction
Question; A car has a total mass of 900 kg and is travelling at 20 m / s. At time t = 0, the driver sees an accident ahead.
He applies the brakes at t = 0.60 s to stop the car. After the brakes are applied, the car comes to rest in a further 4.0 s.
(i) Calculate the deceleration of the car as it brakes.
(ii) draw a speed-time graph for the car as it brakes.
(iii) State how your graph in (ii) can be used to find the total distance travelled by the car
•Question; Fig. shows how the speed of an object varies during a period of 30 s.
On the Fig. shows how the speed of an object varies during a period of 30 s.
(a) State the speed of the object
(i) at the start of the 30 s(t=0s),

(ii) at the end of the 30 s.(t=30s)

(b) Describe what is happening to the
speed during the period
(i) 0 s – 10 s
(ii) 10 s – 25 s
(iii) 25 s – 30
(c) Determine the distance travelled in
the last 5 s.

(d) The total distance travelled in

the 30 s is 750 m. Calculate the average
speed of the object during the 30 s.
 Free Falling In Newtonian physics, free fall is any motion of a
body where gravity is the only force acting upon it.

“Free fall acceleration”

“Acceleration due to gravity”
The acceleration of free-fall near the
surface of the Earth is constant and is
9.8m/s2 or approximately 10m/s2.
It is derived from the gravitational force
felt by objects near the Earth surface and
independent of the mass of any object.
Speed of a free-falling body (experiencing
no other forces other than gravity)
increases by 9.8m/s every second
If you drop a ball and a feather in an
air-filled tube, the rock reaches the
bottom first, this is due to the presence
of air resistance
(the feather is slowed much more by the
air).
In an evacuated tube (no air
inside/vacuum), in absence of air
resistance, both the rock and the
feather have the same acceleration.
They will reach the ground at the same
time.
AIR RESISTANCE
It is a frictional force.
It Has the following characteristics;
It always opposes the motion of moving objects
It increases with the speed of the objects
It increases with the surface area of the object
It increases with the density of an object
OBECTS FALLING WITHOUT AIR RESISTANCE
OBECTS FALLING in AIR RESISTANCE
•The higher the speed of an
object, the greater the air
resistance.
•As an object falls, it picks up
speed, increasing air
resistance. Eventually, air
resistance becomes large
enough to balance the force of
gravity where the acceleration
of the object is 0, reaching
constant velocity.
•Terminal Velocity: When an
object is moving at constant
velocity, acceleration is 0.
Acceleration due to gravity [g]
in going up and down
 Speed increases as going down
with constant acceleration.
 Speed increases 9.8 m/s each one
second
 so acceleration due to gravity is
approximately,g =9.8m/s2
 Speed decreases as going up with
constant acceleration
 Speed decreases 9.8m/s each one
second
So acceleration due to gravity is
approximately 9.8 m/s, but since
we are going up, you can use
 g = -9.8m/s2