A Self-Teaching Guide Basic

Physics Third Edition –

summarisation with formulas
A Self-Teaching Guide Basic Physics 2

Table of Contents
1. Motion..........................................................................................................................................3
1.1. Speed.....................................................................................................................................3
1.2. Acceleration..........................................................................................................................4
1.3. Motion diagrams...................................................................................................................5
1.4. The acceleration of gravity....................................................................................................5
1.5. Acceleration equations..........................................................................................................6
1.5.1. Displacement of an object over time when it experiences constant acceleration.........6
1.5.2. Time it takes for something thrown upward to return to the initial height...................6
1.5.3. Average velocity of an object which experiences constant acceleration......................6
1.6. Velocity: A vector quality.....................................................................................................6
1.7. A vector application: Projectile motion................................................................................8
1.8. Adding velocities: Another vector application.....................................................................9
1.9. Mathematical methods of vector addition...........................................................................10
2. Force and Newton's laws of motion.........................................................................................13
2.1. What is a force?...................................................................................................................13
2.2. Newton's first law................................................................................................................13
2.3. Newton's second law...........................................................................................................13
2.4. Acceleration and net force as vectors..................................................................................13
2.5. Units used in Newton's second law.....................................................................................14
2.6. Mass and weight..................................................................................................................14
2.7. Gravity again.......................................................................................................................14
2.8. Terminal speed....................................................................................................................14
2.9. Circular motion...................................................................................................................14
2.10. Newton's third law..........................................................................................................14
2.11. Newton's third law during acceleration...........................................................................14
A Self-Teaching Guide Basic Physics 3

1. Motion
Physics deals with quantities which can be measured. As you proceed through your study of
physics, you will find that every one of the measurable quantities that is discussed can be specified
in terms of only four basic dimensions: mass, length, time, and electric charge. In this chapter, we
will begin a study of the first three of these.

1.1. Speed
Speed is defined as the distance travelled divided by the time of travel. Thus if you travel 12
kilometres in three hours, the average speed is 4 km/h.1

In practice we often use the symbol v to represent speed. For an object that moves with constant
speed, the defining equation for speed is:

d
v avg=
t

Here v is the speed and d is the distance the object has travelled after the time t has elapsed.

The above equation holds true for objects that move with constant speed, like a car in cruise control.
However, if the speed of the object changes while moving, the above equation gives us just the
objects average speed. An average speed doesn't tell us how an object is moving at any particular
instant. Only when an object is moving with constant speed does its average speed equal its actual
speed.

If we rearrange the equation above, we will be able to make formulas for calculating distance
travelled and time elapsed, based on that we have the two other quantities:

d=v avg ∙t

d
t=
v avg

1
When using kilometres per hour you are using the metric system of units, the one you may be most familiar
with. It includes the units as centimetres, metres, and kilometres. Most of our work will include the metric
system, but not km/h. This is because in physics, you use the SI system (Système International) in which
metres are the standard unit of length, and seconds are the standard unit of time. Therefore, we will be using
metres per second (m/s).
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1.2. Acceleration
As an object gains speed, we say that it accelerates. The change in speed divided by the time it takes
to make the change is called acceleration. In equation form:

v f −v 0
a=
t

Here v 0 represents the speed at the start and v f is the speed after time t has elapsed. In everyday
language, acceleration is used when the value you get after calculating the acceleration of an object
is positive, and if it's negative it's called deceleration. But in physics, the term acceleration is used
for both when it's negative and when it's positive.

The unit for acceleration which is most often used when doing calculations in physics is "metres per
second per second," or "m/s/s." This is most often called metres per second squared, and is written
like this: "m/s2."

Suppose that a car starts from rest and accelerates at 2 s/s 2 for 3 seconds. This means that the car
gains 2 m/s of speed every 1 second.

Suppose that starting from rest, your truck accelerates at a rate of 5 km/h/s and it continues this
acceleration for 8 seconds. What will be its speed at the end of the 8 seconds?
To solve this problem, first rewrite the acceleration equation as:

v f =v 0 +a ∙ t

This is a useful form of the acceleration equation because it says that the speed of the object after
some ( v f ) time depends on the starting speed ( v 0), how quickly its speed is changing (a ), and how
much time has elapsed (t ).
To solve the equation with the given formula we do the following:

0 km/h+5 km/h/s ∙ 8 s=40 km/h

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1.3. Motion diagrams

It is simple to visualise the motion of an object using motion diagrams. Suppose we take pictures of
where an object is with equal time intervals, just like in the picture underneath.

The motion diagram is divided into two parts. The top part shows where the car was at equal time
intervals, for this specific example, let's say that pictures were taken every second. The bottom part
consists of arrows. The top arrows show the acceleration of the car, and the bottom arrows show the
speed and direction of travel of the car. The longer the bottom arrow, the faster it travels. In this
specific example, the car is travelling to the right, with a steady acceleration, thereby the cars speed
is changing with the same amount for every "snapshot."

1.4. The acceleration of gravity

The acceleration of an object falling freely near the surface of the Earth is 9.8 m/s 2. This means that
an object dropped from a very high platform achieves a speed of 9.8 m/s by the end of the first
second, and 19.6 m/s by the end of the second of the next second.

The next figure shows a motion diagram of

a ball being dropped from a building, and it
indicates the speed of the ball at various
times while it falls. Since the ball is
moving downward and speeding up, the
acceleration is also downward. For each
second that passes, the ball speed increases
by 9.8 m/s.

Now suppose that a ball is thrown upward

from the base of the building at a starting
speed of 29.4 m7s, as in the example to the
right. Notice that the speed of the ball
decreases by 9.8 m/s for every second that
passes. Since the ball is moving upward,
but slowing down, the acceleration is
downward. We see that in both cases the
acceleration of the ball is 9.8 m/s 2
downward.
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1.5. Acceleration equations

1.5.1. Displacement of an object over time when it experiences constant
acceleration
This formula represents the displacement of an object over time when it experiences constant
acceleration:

1 2
d=v 0 ∙t + ∙ a∙ t
2

Where v 0 is the starting speed, a is the acceleration, and t is the time elapsed. Thus, in the figure on
the previous page, when the ball has fallen 1 second (and its speed is 9.8 m/s), it has fallen a
distance of 4.9 m.

1.5.2. Time it takes for something thrown upward to return to the initial height
This formula represents the total time it takes for an object which is thrown upward (like in the
example on the previous page) to return to the initial height:

2 vi
t total=
g

Where t total is the total time taken for the ball to go up and then down, v i is the initial velocity of the
ball when it was tossed upward, and g is the acceleration due to gravity.

1.5.3. Average velocity of an object which experiences constant acceleration

Although the speed of the ball in the example on the previous page was 9.8 m/s after one second, the
ball fell only 4.9 m. This is because the ball was not moving at a constant speed of 9.8 m/s during
that first second – its speed was slower than 9.8 m/s. The average speed of the ball while it falls is
4.9 m/s. For an object that is speeding up or slowing down at a constant rate (i.e. constant
acceleration), the average speed of the object during time t can also be determined with the
following equation:

v0 + vf
v avg=
2

This is simply the starting velocity added to the ending velocity divided by two. When we have
calculated the average velocity with this formula, we can simply use the formula d=v avg ∙t to
calculate how far an object has moved. In this way we can replace the calculation in 1.5.1., but it’s
noteworthy to note that this is a longer process.

1.6. Velocity: A vector quality

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Often speed does not tell us all we would want to know about motion. The speed term tells us how
fast something is moving, the term velocity specifies both speed and direction.

The defining equation for average velocity is:

⃗d
⃗v avg=
t

Notice that velocity is defined in the same way as speed, except that in this case we added arrows
over some of the symbols. The quantities with arrows are vectors. A vector is a quantity which has a
direction as well as magnitude (size). The symbol d⃗ , called the objects displacement, is defined as
the straight-line distance from the objects starting position to its final position, including the
direction from start to finish. Thus, an objects displacement might be stated as 4.2 meters east.

Since time cannot be assigned a direction (because it always flows forward) it is not a vector. All
quantities which are not vectors are scalars.

Acceleration is also a vector because we must take into account its direction.

To see the importance of vectors in a simple situation, consider the following example: Suppose a
jogger leaves their house and jogs north 300 meters to the streetlamp on the corner. They run west,
jog another 400 metres, and get to the oak tree two minutes after leaving home. We will calculate
the jogger’s average velocity for the two minutes:

⃗d √ 3002 m+4002 m 500 m

⃗v avg= = = =250 m/min
t 2min 2 min

This example shows that velocity and speed are definitely different things. It may seem to you that
speed is more useful of the two, but the following examples should show the advantage of the
concept of velocity.
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A Self-Teaching Guide Basic Physics 9

1.7. A vector application: Projectile motion

Imagine a moving hot-air balloon that drops a sandbag. Since the balloon is moving along with the
air, the effect of air resistance can be neglected as the sandbag falls. An interesting thing occurs: as
the sandbag falls, it continues moving forward at the speed that the balloon had when the sandbag
was dropped. The sandbag does fall, of course, but its downward speed is independent of its forward
speed. The sandbag continues forward as if it had not been dropped, and it falls downward with an
ever-increasing speed just as if it were not moving forward. The figure assumes that the balloon is
travelling at 12 m/s, and it shows the sandbag at intervals of 1 second beginning when it is dropped.
In each second the sandbag moves forward 12 meters. Now note its downward motion. At the end of
the first second after being released, its downward speed is 9.8 m/s.

In this example, we have seen that it is sometimes advantageous to consider motion as having two
components, each perpendicular to the other. Although the actual velocity of the sandbag is neither
straight down nor horizontal, we can consider its motion to be a combination of a downward motion
and a horizontal motion.
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A common trick in skateboarding is called a hippy jump. The skateboarder is running along a flat
surface and then jumps straight upwards. As shown in the figure, the skateboarder continues moving
forward at the speed the skateboard had before the jump, remaining over the skateboard as it rolls
forward before landing back on the board. 2 Just like the previous example with the sandbag and hot-
air balloon, the skateboarder's vertical motion (rising and falling) is independent of their horizontal
motion (moving forward at constant speed).

If the skateboard is rolling forward at 5 m/s and the skateboarder jumps up with an initial vertical
speed of 2.45 m/s:

a. At the end of 0.1 seconds, the skateboarder's horizontal and vertical velocities are 5 m/s
forward and 1.47 m/s upward (since the vertical speed changes by 9.8 m/s every 1 second,
the vertical speed will change by 0.98 m/s every 1/10th second.
b. At the end of 0.3 seconds, the skateboarder's horizontal and vertical velocities are 5 m/s
forward and 0.49 m/s downward (2.45 m/s−9.8 m/ s2 ∙ 0.3 s)
c. At the end of 0.3 seconds, the skateboarder's horizontal and vertical velocities are 5 m/s
forward and 2.45 m/s downward.

1.8. Adding velocities: Another vector application

Suppose a person is working on a treadmill at 5 km/h. The person's legs are walking forward at 5
km/h and yet the person stays in place. The persons forward-walking velocity of 5 km/h is cancelled
by the treadmill belts backward velocity of 5 km/h. In other words, the two velocities add to zero
because they are equal in magnitude (size) but oppose in direction.

2
Of course, we have to assume the effects of friction slowing the skateboard down are very small.
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1.9. Mathematical methods of vector addition

Vectors can be added together to find the resultant vector, which represents the combined effect of
the individual vectors. Since velocity is a vector quantity, we must take into account their directions
to add two or more velocities. The addition of vectors is most easily accomplished by using scale
drawings, the graphical method of vector addition.

Imagine a pilot who wants to fly due north, despite taking off in a crosswind that blows steadily to
the west. Represented as arrows on a diagram, the plane’s velocity and wind velocity could look like
the following.

This is called a scale diagram. In scale diagrams, all the

grid spaces are of equal size, and their widths and
heights represent some physical quantity depending on
the vectors displayed. In general, vectors of any quantity
could be represented on a scale diagram: acceleration,
displacement, force, and so on.

One reason scale diagrams are useful is that they let us

add vectors graphically. We do this using the tip-to-tail
method: placing the tip of a first vector at the tail of a
second, so that the vector drawn from the tail of the first
to the tip of the second is the resultant.

In the diagram above, to find the sum of the two vectors, we can translate the wind’s velocity vector
so that its tail overlaps the tip of the plane’s vector, as follows.

The sum of the vectors yields a vector (in green) pointing directly north.

Note that vectors can be combined using this method even when the type of vector on a given
diagram is not defined.
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We can also calculate the speed of the plane when taking into account the wind. Let us make a new
example:

Let us say that each unit on the grid represents 50 km/h of velocity. Here we have a plane with a
speed of 250 km/h, the plane is travelling north. We also have a wind which has a speed of 70.5
km/h, the wind is travelling southeast.

One important thing when doing calculations like this is to remember that one arrow needs to be
touching the tail of the other. This is not a problem in this example because in this example we
already had them placed accordingly.

The next step to calculate the actual velocity of the plane is to make a line from the head of the first
to the tail of the second. When we measure the length of this line and multiply it by five, we get the
velocity of the plane to be 206 km/h. One thing worth noting is that this method also shows in which
direction the plane will be heading when considering the wind. If this was a real situation, the plane
would need to turn to the left to counter the force of the wind pushing it to the right.
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Let us return to projectile motion and the example of the sandbag being dropped from the hot-air
balloon. Suppose the balloon is high enough that the sandbag hits the ground 2 seconds after it is
released. At that time the forward speed of the sandbag is still 12 m/s. Its downward speed is now
19.6 m/s. We will use the graphical method to combine both vectors and determine the velocity of
the sandbag at impact.

This drawing uses a scale of one unit to represent 3 m/s. From this, we can easily determine that the
total velocity of the sandbag is 22.9 m/s (7 , 63 ∙3=22 , 89).
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2. Force and Newton's laws of motion

In this chapter, you will use the rules you learnt in the previous chapter, along with the powerful
insights into motion that is provided by Isaac Newton's three laws of motion.

2.1. What is a force?

In simplest terms, a force can be described as a push or pull. As such, force is an interaction between
two objects:

a. The object exerting the force.

b. The object being acted upon by that force.

A force can either be a contact force or a long-range force.

A contact force exists when two objects touch each other when they interact. A hockey stick must
touch the puck to hit it, a gymnast must grab the bar to pull it, and a pitcher must hold the baseball
to throw it.

A long-range force is an interaction without the objects contacting each other. Magnets that attract
and repel each other without touching are an example of long-range force. Gravity is another
example of a long-range force. A ball released from the top of a building falls to the ground because
the Earth exerts a gravitational force on the ball without the ball and Earth contacting each other.

Force can be measured using a spring scale. The greater the force pulling on other scale, the greater
their reading on that scale. The SI unit of force is the newton (N). One kilogram is equal to 9.81 N.
m
And one newton is equal to 1 kilogram meter per second squared (1 N=1 kg 2 ).
s

A force is also a vector, meaning it has a direction. Suppose two children are having a tug-of-war
over their favourite toy. One child is using a force of 40 N to pull the toy to the left. The other child
also pulls with a force of 40 N, but to the right. Since the two forces are equal in size but act on the
toy in opposite directions, they added to zero. In this case, the resultant force, or net force is zero.
Suppose the first child pulls left with 30 N while the second child continues to pull right with 40 N.
In this case the net force on the toy would be 10 N to the right.

2.2. Newton's first law

W

2.3. Newton's second law

W

2.4. Acceleration and net force as vectors

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2.5. Units used in Newton's second law

W

2.6. Mass and weight

W

2.7. Gravity again

W

2.8. Terminal speed

W

2.9. Circular motion

W

2.10. Newton's third law

W

2.11. Newton's third law during acceleration