8.1 The Language of Motion – Student Notes

Some common words used to describe motion include:

______

______

______

______

Direction Makes a Difference!
Two main types of quantities:

Scalars: Describe ______. (Magnitude is the size of a measurement)

  • Example: ______.

Vectors: Describe ______.

  • Example: ______.
Vectors vs. Scalars

•You can always tell if a quantity is a vector because there will be an arrow drawn above it.

Example: ______.

•A scalar has no arrow.

Example: ______.

Distance vs. Displacement

•Distance (d) is a ______that tells you how far something has travelled.

 Example: ______.

•Displacement ( ) is a ______that describes your position relative to where you started.

 Example: ______.

•We measure both ______and ______in metres (m).

Example:

A car leaves home and drives 10 km to the store and then returns home. The car has driven a total

______but its final ______.

Time Interval

•Time interval or change in time is calculated by:

Where: Δt = ______(the Δ symbol is the greek letter delta. It means “change”).

ti = ______

tf = ______

Example:

The time interval to move from the fire hydrant to the sign is calculated by: ______.

Displacement

•Displacement or change in position is calculated by:

•Where: ______= change in position or displacement.

______= initial position

______= final position

Example:

Between 2 s and 5 s, the skateboarder’s: displacement is ______and

distance travelled is ______.

Displacement and Distance

Watch for Signs: Turn to page 349 for common sign conventions. Copy Figure 8.8 below.

Uniform Motion

•Uniform motion is a term that describes objects that ______.

•In other words, they ______(we will discuss velocity more later)

Example:

The position of the ball in this photo is shown at ______. How would you determine if this motion is uniform motion? ______

______.

What would the picture look like if the ball was NOT in uniform motion? ______

______.

Graphing Uniform Motion

•Motion of an object can be analyzed by ______.

•A position-time graph plots

______(y-axis) and

______on the horizontal axis (x-axis).

•Uniform motion is represented by a

______on a position-time graph.

Positive Slope: Slants ______.

Indicates an object travelling in the ______

______(ie: North, East, to the right, up, etc.)

Zero Slope: ______line.

Indicates that the object is ______.

Negative Slope: Slants ______.

•Indicates an object travelling in the ______(ie: South, West, to the left, down, etc.)