Vectors vs.

Scalars
Scalar quantities
Specified by a single value with an appropriate unit and
has no direction.
Invariant under coordinate transformations
Ex: Mass

Mass of any particle is NOT affected by a change in the

coordinate axes.

Vectors
has both magnitude and direction
Ex: Torque

Graphical Method in
Vectors
A vector is a quantity that can be represented
by directed(arrow-tipped) line segment.

The length of the line(drawn to a scale)

represents the magnitude
The direction of the arrow indicates the
direction of the quantity.

Vector Addition in One

Dimension
Just as we can represent vectors graphically, we
can add vectors graphically
The vectors are added by placing the tail of one
vector at the head of the other vector.
The sum is the Resultant Vector
The vector that connects the tail of the first vector to the
head of the second vector.

Example
A person walks 200 m east, pauses, and then continues
400m east

Vector Addition in One

Dimension
The order of addition does not matter
They commute

The vector can have different direction

Vector Addition in Two

Dimensions
Polygon Method
-head to tail

Parallelogram Method
-tail to tail

Example:
a person walk 4 m east and then 2 m north.

Analytical Method of Vector Addition

Recall:
The concepts of trigonometry
Pythagorean theorem

Example
A hiker walks 13km due east, then 18kmnorth, and
finally 3km west.
What is the total distance walked by the hiker?
Determine the total displacement from the starting
point.

Drills
An airplane flying toward 0 at 90km/h is being
blown toward 90 at 50km/h. What is the
resultant velocity of the plane?

Drills
A motorboat travels at 8.5m/s. It heads straight
across a river 110m wide.
If the water flows downstream at a rate of 3.8
m/s, what is the boats resultant velocity?
How long does it take the boat to reach the
opposite shore?
How far downstream is the boat when it
reaches the other side?

Component of Vectors
just as two vectors can be represented by a
single vector(resultant), a single vector can be
resolve into its component.
Vector Resolution-The process of finding the
magnitude of a component in a given direction

y
componen
t
x
component

...Component of Vectors
A person walks 5m in the direction 37 N of E.
How far north and how far east had he walked?

37

Mechanics
The study of the relationship among forces, matter,
and _____.

Kinematics
Deals with the description
of motion without regard to
its _____

Dynamics
Studies the relationship
of motion to its cause

Mechanics
The science that seeks to provide a precise and

consistent description of the dynamics of particles

and systems of particles, that is, a set of physical
laws mathematically describing the motions of
bodies and aggregates of bodies

Motion Along a Straight Line

When can we say that an object is in motion?

...

Where is the object?

What is its position?
How do we locate it?

We establish a reference point

A point used to describe the location of a body
A bodys position is described relative to this point.

Position
The separation between the body and the reference point

Distance VS Displacement
Displacement
Change of position of an object.
Recall:
Position is described in terms of a reference point.

It is a vector quantity

Distance
A separation of two points without any specified
reference point.
It is a scalar quantity

Three players on a reality TV show are brought

to the center of a large, flat field. Each is given
a meter stick, a compass, a calculator, a
shovel, and (in a different order for each
contestant) the following three displacements:

A: 72.4m, 32.0 east of north

B: 57.3m, 36.0 south of west
C: 17.8m due south
The three displacements lead to the point in
the field where the keys to a new Porsche are
buried. Two players start measuring
immediately, but the winner first calculates
where to go. What does she calculate?

Speed and Velocity

Average Velocity-defined as the particles displacement divided
by the time interval during which that displacement occurred:

Average Speed- defined as the total distance travelled

divided by the total time it takes to travel that distance

Average Velocity is a VECTOR quantity

Average Speed is a SCALAR quantity

Instantaneous Velocity- The Velocity at any

specific instant of
time or specific point
along the path.
-It equals the instantaneous rate of change
of position with time
-in Physics an instant has no duration at all;
it refers to a single value of time
-defined in higher physics as the limit of the
average velocity as the time interval
approaches zero

Drills
A motorboat travels at 8.5m/s. It heads straight
across a river 110m wide.
If the water flows downstream at a rate of 3.8
m/s, what is the boats resultant velocity?
How long does it take the boat to reach the
opposite shore?
How far downstream is the boat when it
reaches the other side?

1. A 42-km/h wind blows toward 215,

while a plane heads toward 125 at
152km/h. What is the resultant
velocity of the plane?

3. Two cars 100m apart are approaching each other. One car
is travelling at 3m/s and the other is at 5m/s. How far from
their initial position must each car travel before they will
meet? What is the time elapsed?

5m/s

3m/s

Seatwork
1. A student went to the canteen at a walking speed of 0.3m/s.
He had gone 10m already when his friend decided to follow
him by walking at a speed of 1.1m/s. How much distance must
his classmate have to travel before he could overtake him?

10
m

Acceleration
Acceleration- describes the rate of change of velocity with
time
Note: velocity can change in three ways
a. Change in speed, either increase or
decrease
b. Change in direction
c. Change in speed as well as direction
Recall: Velocity describes the rate of change of position with
time
- Like velocity, acceleration is a vector
quantity

Average acceleration- defined as the change in velocity

divided by the time interval to which that change occurred:

Note: if we express velocity in meters per second and

time in seconds, then average acceleration is in meters
per second per second, or (m/s)/s.

Read as meters per second squared

Constant Acceleration
Acceleration that does not change in time
Acceleration is uniform
Motions of this kind is termed as uniformly accelerated motions
The velocity-time graph of constant acceleration is a straight line
Velocity of an object with constant
acceleration
Example:
1. If a car with a velocity of 2.0 m/s at t=0 accelerates at a rate of
+4.0m/s/s for 2.5s, what is its velocity at time t=2.5s?
v=?

4m/s/s
2.5s

t=0
2m/s

Displacement During Constant Acceleration

Displacement When Velocity and Time Are
Known
Recall: d=vt -displacement when an object is
moving with constant velocity
Note: If an object is uniformly accelerating, the velocity
is replaced by the average velocity

Sample Problem
1. What is the displacement of a train as it is accelerated
uniformly from +11m/s to +33m/s in a 20.0-s interval
11m/s

d=?

33m/s
20s

2. A bike rider accelerates constantly to a velocity of

7.5m/s during 4.5s. The bikes displacement is +19m.
What was the initial velocity of the bike?
v=?

7.5m/s
d=9m

4.4s

Displacement when Acceleration and Time are known

- If the initial velocity, acceleration, and time interval are
known, the displacement of an object can be found by
combining equations already used.
Recall:

Substitute the final velocity from the first

equation into the second equation

The sum of these two terms gives the displacement of

an object that starts with an initial velocity and
accelerates uniformly

Note: if the object starts from rest, the equation

reduces to

Sample Problems
1. A car starting from rest accelerates uniformly at
+6.1m/s/s for 7s. How far does the car move?

t=7s

d=?

2. Starting from rest, the race car moves 110m in the first 5.0s
of uniform acceleration. What is the cars acceleration?
t=5s

d=110m

Displacement When Velocity and Acceleration Are

Known
_ combine the equations for final velocity and
displacement to form equation relating initial and final
velocities, acceleration, and displacement in which time
does not appear
Recall:
The second equation is now
solved for t and substituted
in the first

Solving for

Sample Problem
1. An airplane must reach a velocity of 71m/s for takeoff. If the
runway is 1.0km long, what must the constant acceleration be
71m/s
1km

a=?

2. An airplane accelerates from a velocity of 21m/s at the

constant rate of 3.0m/s/s over +535m. What is its final
velocity?
21m/s
535m
3m/s/s

seatwork
A motorist traveling with constant
velocity of 15m/s passes a schoolcrossing corner, where the speed
limit is 10m/s. Just as the motorist
passes, a police officer on a
motorcycle stopped at the corner
starts off in pursuit with constant
acceleration of 3m/s/s. How much
time elapses before the officer
catches up with the motorist?

Freely Falling Bodies

The most familiar example of motion with (nearly) constant

acceleration

Bodies falling under the influence of the earths gravitational attraction

Background:
Aristotle vs. Galileo
Aristotles
view
Aristotle divided motion into two main classes: natural and
violent motion
Natural motion was thought to proceed from the nature of
objects-every object in the universe has a proper place
-heavier objects were expected to strive harder
-objects were thought to fall at speeds proportional to
their weights.
-the heavier the object, the faster it was thought to fall.

Aristotles view
violent motion-resulted from pushing or pulling forces.
violent motion was imposed motion.
Galileos view
-Galileo was concerned with how things move rather than why
things move.
-he showed that experiment rather than logic is the best
test of knowledge.
-he developed the concept of acceleration in his
experiments on inclined planes.
Galileo found
greater
acceleration for
steeper inclines.
The ball attains
its maximum
acceleration
when the incline
is tipped
vertically

Galileo argued that a body should fall with a downward

acceleration that is constant and independent of its size or
weight.
Note:
Galileo is right if we neglect the effects of
1. the air
2.the earths rotation
3. the decrease of acceleration with increasing
altitude
We call this idealized motion-where an object is falling free of
all restraints except for the influence of gravity as free fall
-The constant acceleration of a freely falling body is called
the acceleration due to gravity.
- We denote its magnitude with the letter g
-at or near the earths surface the value of g is approximately
9.8m/s/s
-The exact value varies with location

Note:
all problems involving motion of falling objects can be
solve by using constant-acceleration equations.
Recall:
Acceleration a is
replaced by
acceleration due to
gravity g
Sample problem
1. An apple falls freely from a tree.
a. What is its velocity after 0.5seconds
b. How far does the apple fall during this time-0.5s

Sample problem
2. A tennis ball is thrown straight up in the air with an
initial velocity of 22.5m/s. How high does the ball rise.

The ball is caught at the same distance above the ground

from which it was thrown. How long does the ball remain
in the air?

Seatwork
1. Ten seconds after starting from rest, a
freely-falling object will have a speed of
about _____.
2. An object is in free-fall. At one instant, it
travels at a speed of 50m/s. Exactly one
second later, its speed is about ______
3. Starting from rest, the distance a freelyfalling object will fall in 10seconds is about
______
4. A man falls 1.0m to the floor.
a. how long does the fall take
b. how fast is he going when he hits the
floor
5. A pitcher throws a ball straight up with an
initial speed of 27m/s
a. How long does it take the ball to reach
its highest point?
b. How high does the ball rise above its

Sample Problem:
1. You are on the roof of a Physics building, 46m
above the ground. Your Physics teacher, who is 1.8m
tall, is walking alongside the building at a constant
speed 1.20m/s . If you wish to drop an egg on your
teachers head, where should your teacher be when
you release the egg? Assume that the egg is in free
fall.

A Physics student with too much free time drops

a water melon from the roof of a building. He
hears the sound of the watermelon going splat
3.00s later. How high is the building? The speed
of sound is 340m/s. Ignore air resistance?

340m/s

Motion-Motion
Dimensions
Projectile
Projectile- any
body that is givenin
an Two
initial velocity
and then
follows a path determined entirely by the effects of
gravitational acceleration and air resistance

Examples: 1. a thrown football

2. a package dropped from an airplane
3. a bullet shot from a rifle
Trajectory- the path followed by a projectile
Note: we neglect the effect of air resistance and the curvature
and rotation of the earth.
-The key to analysis of projectile motion is that we can treat the
x- and y- coordinate separately
-The x- component of acceleration is zero, and the ycomponent is constant
-we can analyze projectile motion as a combination of
horizontal motion with constant velocity and vertical
motion with constant acceleration

Vertical
component

Horizontal
component

Horizontal motion with no

gravity

Combined horizontal
and vertical motion
Vertical motion only
with gravity

note: the ball moves

equal horizontal
distances in equal
time interval. The
vertical component
changes

With no gravity the

projectile would follow a
straight path

But because of gravity,

it falls beneath this line
the same vertical
distance it would fall if
released from rest

60

75

45

30

15

10m/s

20m/s

30m/s

40m/s

10m/s

20m/s

30m/s

40m/s

Sample problem
1. A stone is thrown horizontally at 15m/s from the top
of a cliff 44m high. How long does the stone take to
reach the bottom of the cliff? How far from the base
of the cliff does the stone strike the ground.
2. The initial velocity of the ball was 4.47m/s at an
angle of 66degrees above the horizontal. How long
did it took the ball to land? How high did the ball
flew. What was its range?
Seatwork
1. A motorcycle stunt rider rides off the edge of a cliff.
Just at the edge his velocity is horizontal, with
magnitude 9.0m/s. Find the motorcycles position,
distance from the edge of the cliff, and velocity
after 0.50s.
2. The Germans used a long-range gun named Big
Bertha in World War I to bombard Paris. Its muzzle
velocity was 1450m/s. Find its predicted range,
maximum height, and projectile time of flight if
angle is 55