Motion & Force
Distance: Distance is the actual length of the path covered by a moving body irrespective of the direction
in which it moves. It is a scalar. Unit: meter, m
Displacement: Displacement is shortest distance between the initial position and final position of the moving
body OR Displacement is the distance moved in a specified direction. It is a vector. Unit: meter, m
Example: A car travels 5km due east and makes U-turn back to travel a further distance of 3 km. Find
distance and displacement.
Solution
▪ Distance= 3+5=8 km
▪ Displacement= 5-3=2 km
Speed and Velocity
Speed Velocity
Speed is the rate of change of distance OR Velocity is the displacement moved per unit time..
distance moved per unit time.
s
v=
d t
v=
t v = velocity in m/s
v =speed in m/s s=displacement in m & t= time in s
d=distance in m & t= time in s
Most objects don’t move in constant speed. It is Similarly, Average velocity=
therefore to define average speed. total displacement/total time taken
Average speed=total distance/total time taken
Speed is a scalar Velocity is a vector
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Acceleration: Acceleration is the increase in velocity per unit time.
▪ Uniform acceleration: If the increase in velocity is constant throughout the journey, the
acceleration is uniform.
▪ Non-uniform acceleration: If the increase in velocity is not constant throughout the journey, the
acceleration is uniform.
Distance-time (d-t) graph
▪ The gradient (y step/x step) of the distance-time graph represents the speed of the object.
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Speed-time (V-t) graph
▪ The gradient(y step/ x step) of the speed-time graph is equal to the acceleration.
▪ The area under the speed-time graph represents the distance travelled by the object.
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Problem
▪ Find the acceleration & deceleration from the following graph.
▪ Find the distance travelled & average speed of the car.
Part A: acceleration=gradient or slope
16 − 0 16
▪ a= = = 0.4ms −2
40 − 0 40
Part C: Deceleration
16 − 0 16
▪ a= = = 0.53ms −2
100 − 70 30
Average Speed
1 1
▪ Total distance d =area A+ area B+ area C= 40 16 + 30 16 + 30 16 m=1040 m
2 2
▪ Total time=100 s
d 1040
▪ v= = = 10.4ms −1
t 100
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Free falling Object with air resistance
Air resistance is a form of frictional force, it has following characteristics:
• It always opposes the motion of the object.
• It increases with the speed and size (area) of the object.
• It increases with the density of the object.
If an object for an example a sky-diver falls freely with air resistance:
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**Free falling Object without air resistance
▪ The objects will fall with same acceleration i.e g = 10ms −2 if there is no air resistance.
Speed investigation using ticker tape.
▪ A ticker timer is a machine that makes a series of dots on a paper tape moving through the
machine.
▪ Most ticker timer used in school physics laboratories make 50 dots each second.
▪ Ticker tape can be used to investigate speed or acceleration.
▪ One end of the ticker tape is fastened to a trolley or air track glider, which pulls tape through the
machine as it moves.
▪ If the tape is pulled slowly through the machine, the dots are close together. If the tape is
pulled quickly, the dots are further apart
▪ Then tape can then be cut up into lengths representing equal time, and used to make speed-time
graphs.
▪ As each length of tape represents 0.1 seconds, you can work out the velocity from the length of the
piece of the tape using the equation velocity= distance (length of the tape)/time (0.1 s).
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Distance-time graphs made form ticker tape. a) Constant speed, b) Accelerating, c) Decelerating.
a) Constant speed b) accelerating c) decelerating
Dynamics
Force:
▪ Force is a push or pull, exerted by one object on another.
▪ Force can change the size, shape and motion of a body but not the mass of a body.
▪ Unit of force is Newton (N).
▪ Force can be measured by spring balance.
▪ A force of 1 N will make a mass of 1 kg accelerate at 1 m/s2.
Other forms of forces
Electrostatic force: the push of pull between electric charges.
Magnetic force: the push or pull between magnetic poles.
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▪ When the forces are balanced, an object is either at rest, or moving at a steady. That follows from Newton’s
first law which states that
If no external force is acting on it, an object will
▪ if stationary, remain stationary.
▪ if moving, keep moving at a steady speed in a straight line.
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The acceleration of a body is directly proportional to and in the same direction of applied force, and inversely
proportional to the mass of the body.
F=ma
F: resultant force
m: mass of the body
a: acceleration
Friction: Friction is the force that tries to stop material sliding over each other. This is because of the
microscopic surface irregularities of the two surfaces as shown in the following figure.
Some effects of friction
Negative effects Positive effects
1. Reduce the engine power up to 20%. 1. Needed for walking, holding a pen etc.
2. Causes wear and tear of moving parts in 2. Used in braking pads to slow down cars.
engines, motors and machines.
The common methods used to minimize the negative effects of the friction include:
1. Using highly polished surfaces for moving parts.
2. Introducing a layer of lubricants between the two surfaces to prevent the surface irregularities
from holing onto one another.
3. Use steel ball bearings to enable surfaces to roll over rather than slide over each other.
Stopping distance: In an emergency, the driver of a car may have to react quickly and apply the brakes.
The car’s stopping distance is the sum of following:
• the thinking distance: This is how far the car travels before the brakes are applied, while the
driver is still reacting.
• the braking distance: This is how far the car travels after the brakes have been applied.
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The reaction time: It takes an average driver about half a second to react and press the brake pedal. This
is the driver’s reaction time. During this time, the car does not slow down, and more speed it has, the
further it travels.
Speed and energy: If a car doubles its speed, it has four times as much K.E to get rid off, and needs
about the four times the braking distance.
Action-reaction pairs: A single force can’t exist by itself. Forces are always pushes or pulls between
two objects. The paired forces are known as action and reaction, but it doesn’t matter which you call
which. One can’t exist without other.
Newton’s Third Law:
If a body A exerts a force F on body B, then body B exerts a force of –F (of equal size but in the
opposite direction) on A. Or To every action, there is equal and opposite reaction.
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Motion in a circular path: When a ball is whirling in a circle at a steady speed, an inward force is
needed to make the ball to follow circular path. The tension in the string provides this force. Without it,
the ball would travel in a straight line, as predicted by Newton’s first law of motion. This is exactly what
happens if the string breaks. The inward force needed to make an object move in a circle called the
centripetal force. More centripetal force is needed if:
▪ the mass of the object is increased
▪ the speed of the object is increased
▪ the radius of the of the circle is increased.
Example: When a motorcycle goes round a corner, the sideways friction between the tyres and the road
provides the necessary centripetal force.
Changing velocity: Velocity is speed in a particular direction. So a change in velocity can mean either a
change in speed or direction, as shown in the diagram below. Diagram B shows what happens during
circular motion.
Electrons around the nucleus: In atoms, negatively charged particles called electrons are in orbit around
a positively charge nucleus. The attraction between opposite charges provides the centripetal force
needed.
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Satellites around the Earth
▪ A satellite travels round the earth in a curved path called an orbit. Gravitational Pull (in other
words satellite’s weight) provides the centripetal force needed.
▪ When a satellite is put into orbit, its speed is carefully chosen so that the path does not take it
further out into space or back to Earth.
▪ Heavy satellites need same speed as light ones. If the mass is doubled, twice as much as
centripetal force is required, but that is supplied by the double gravitational pull of earth.
Planets around the Sun: The earth and other planets move moves in approximately circular paths
around the Sun. The centripetal force needed is supplied by the Sun’s gravitational pull.
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