Lecture notes on straight-line motion and graphs

 What is a particle?
Tell the student that a question says to find the speed of a car travelling in a
straight line from A to B. In order to understand the question better, you may try
to draw the situation. When you draw the car, instead of drawing an actual
drawing of a car, which is time-consuming, you just draw a particle which is just a
dot because the shape of the car is not the main focus. It does not matter what the
car looks like. What matters is the speed of the car.
Tell the student when we care about the speed of a car or its acceleration or
anything else other than the dimensions of a car, other than how the car looks like,
we model the car as a particle.
The particle is represented as a dot.

 What is speed?
Distance is the same as length. It is the length of something. Give the example of
two points and the distance between them and some more examples.
Length is measured using a ruler.
1) Time is how long it takes to do something. The duration of something. Give
some examples without mentioning how time is measured.
2) Time is measured using a stopwatch.
3) Speed is when distance is divided by time.
D
4) Show the formula, S= T .Tell the student that if D is measured in meters and T is
measured in seconds, the unit of speed is m/s.
5) It tells us what distance is covered per second. Then say, oh sorry, it should be
per unit time because sometimes the question may ask the value of speed in
minutes or in microseconds or any other unit of time. Unit time means minute,
second, microsecond and so on.
  About distance-time graphs
Suppose a question may give you a coordinate plane and a graph which has
vertical axis representing distance and horizontal axis representing time and a
straight line through the origin as the graph. The question may ask you to calculate
the speed, How would you do it? By calculating the gradient of the graph.
Pick two points on the graph, write down their coordinates and name them.
y 2− y
m=
x 2−x
1
is the formula to calculate the gradient. Gradient is denoted as m. It is
1

represented as m. y2 and x 2 are the larger coordinates. The answer is the speed.
Note that when the vertical axis is labelled y and the horizontal axis labelled x,
y 2− y
then we use x2− x
1
, but as the vertical axis is labelled D and horizontal axis labelled t,
1

D2−D
we instead write 1

t 2 −t 1
.

This is how we calculate speed from a graph.

Conclude that whenever we have a coordinate plane whose vertical axis is
representing distance and horizontal axis representing time, the gradient of the
graph will represent speed.
Until now, tell the student that the graph of distance-time can take be of two
types:

When the graph is horizontal that means the

speed is 0m/s, if d is measured in meters and
time in seconds. If d is measured in cm, then
0cm/s.
When the graph is a straight line, that means
the speed is constant. Every second the speed
is going to have the same value. I will not tell
the student that he will have to sketch because
when he does practice questions, he will get to know then and I am confident I will
also be able to solve and explain then.

 What is acceleration?
Tell the student acceleration tells us what the speed is per second. Oh sorry, per
unit time. Change of speed per unit time.
In the above graph of d-t, where the graph was a straight line, we saw that every
second the speed had the same value. It was constant. That means acceleration is
zero. Whenever speed is constant, acceleration is zero. When every second the
value of speed is changing, there is acceleration.
final speed −initial speed
a=
time
is the formula. Since the numerator is speed and if the
numerator is measured in m/s and the denominator which is time in seconds, the
m/s m
unit of acceleration is = =m/s 2. It could have been cm/ s2 if the unit of speed
s s∗s
was in cm/s.
Acceleration can also be calculated from a graph. The graph is in the coordinate
plane whose vertical axis is speed and horizontal axis is time. The gradient of this
graph is acceleration.
Before looking at different types of v-t graphs, consider the following graph:
When the graph is curved, that means the speed is not constant. Every second, the
value of speed is not the same. When speed is not constant, there is acceleration.

The types of v-t graphs:

We have seen that when vertical axis is speed and horizontal axis time, the
gradient of that graph is acceleration. Therefore, when the gradient is 0 that
means acceleration is zero. To show it in a graph, the graph is a horizontal line.
Show the student that every second, the value of speed is the same, which
suggests constant speed and when there is constant speed, acceleration is 0.
For the other type of v-t graph, the value of speed is changing every second and so
there is acceleration and in order to calculate we find the gradient of the graph.
Let’s say it is 5. Notice, in this graph, the gradient at every point is the same and so
acceleration every second will be the same. Draw another v-t graph that does not
have gradient at every point the same and tell the student, for this graph, the
gradient at each point is not the same and so acceleration every second, at each
point will not be the same. When acceleration is the same every second, we say
there is constant acceleration or uniform acceleration. When acceleration is
constant, speed changes by the amount of acceleration every second.
In the last graph, the gradient is changing every second and so acceleration is
changing. As the graph is going upwards, speed is increasing. That means
acceleration is not constant. The value of speed is increasing with a different
amount every second.
What is the area under the first graph? Show how to calculate the area under each
graph and tell the student the area under a speed against time graph is distance.
  What are scalar and vector quantities?
Speed, acceleration, time, distance are all quantities because they measure
something. Speed measures how fast something is moving. Acceleration measures
by what amount the value of speed is changing every second. Sorry per unit time.
Time measures how long it takes to do something. Distance measures how far two
things are from each other.
Consider a particle going from point A to B in a straight line. Ask the student to list
the quantities that can be measured in the given situation. There are going to be
four quantities: (1) Speed: how fast the particle is moving from A to B, (2) Distance:
how far A and B are from each other, (3) Acceleration: the amount by which the
value of speed is changing every second and (4) Time: how long it takes to move
from A to B.
Suppose the particle is a car. As it is moving to the right, its direction of motion is
to the right. The car can also go from B to A. In that case, its direction of motion is
to the left. So the particle has two directions of motion. We have to show in our
answer when calculating speed, the direction of motion. How do you do that? By
placing the +ve or -ve signs before the number. Suppose the distance between A
and B is 10m and the time it takes is 5s. The speed of the car is then 2m/s. As the
car is moving to right, we write +2m/s. The particle now goes from B to A. The
distance and time remains the same. But this time, instead of writing +2m/s, we
write -2m/s as the particle is to the left. Tell the student it is completely his choice
which direction he choses to be the +ve and -ve unless the question specifies (The
question may not directly specify which direction is what. The question might
give the value of speed as 5m/s and say it is going from A to B. This is indirectly
telling the student the ‘to the right’ direction is +ve. Do not tell the student that
a question may indirectly state which direction is what). But before doing so,
write it in your answer which direction is what.
Right and left are the directions of motion for horizontal motion. For vertical
motion, the directions of motion are up and down. Tell the student, in vertical
motion also, they have to choose which direction is the +ve and which is the -ve
unless stated in the question.
Tell the student just now we have seen, by placing the +ve and -ve sign, a quantity
shows direction along with magnitude. The number part of a quantity is the
magnitude and the sign part, direction. When a quantity shows both magnitude
and direction, it is called a vector quantity. When a quantity shows just magnitude
it is called scalar quantity.
So, speed is scalar quantity, velocity is vector quantity. Distance is scalar quantity,
displacement is vector quantity. Acceleration is a vector quantity. Time is a scalar
quantity.
What does +5m or -10m mean? How to interpret the sign of a displacement
quantity? Considering vertical motion, lets say upwards is +ve and downwards -ve.
+5m means, an object is moving upwards and has covered a distance of 5m. -10m
then means, an object is moving downwards and has covered a distance of 10m.
What does the sign of acceleration quantity +10m/ s 2 or -9m/s 2 mean? +10 means the
speed is increasing by 10m/s every second. 10 is added every second. The
direction of acceleration is the same as the direction of displacement. -9 means
the speed is decreasing by 9m/s every second. 9 is subtracted every second. The
direction of acceleration is opposite to the direction of displacement. Acceleration
is shown with an arrow with two heads. -ve acceleration is called deceleration.
Now consider the following graphs of displacement against time and velocity
against time graph:

The gradient of this graph is negative. That means velocity is -ve.

Which means, the object is moving to the opposite direction.
The gradient of this graph is the same every second. So the acceleration is
constant. However, as the gradient is -ve, the object is decelerating. That means
the direction of acceleration is opposite to the direction of displacement.

At this point, points 1 and two of the syllabus finished.