Fundamentals of PhysicsLecturer: Naghi Gasimov

Lecture 1. Introduction to Physics. Kinematics in One Dimension.

Content

Chapter 1. Introduction, Measurement, Estimating

1 1 How Science Works

1 2 Models, Theories, and Laws

Chapter 2. Describing Motion: Kinematics in One Dimension

2 1 Reference Frames and Displacement

2 2 Average Velocity

2 3 Instantaneous Velocity

2 4 Acceleration

2 5 Motion at Constant Acceleration

What is Physics?

Physics, the most fundamental physical science, is concerned with the fundamental principles of the

Universe.

Physics is the foundation of other sciences - astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology and others.

Physics has the simplicity of its fundamental principles.

Physics divided into 6 major areas:

classical mechanics, concerning the motion of objects that are large relative to atoms and move at

speeds much slower than the speed of light;

relativity, a theory describing objects moving at any speed, even speeds approaching the speed of

light;

thermodynamics, dealing with heat, work, temperature, and the statistical behavior of systems with

large numbers of particles;

electromagnetism, concerned with electricity, magnetism, and electromagnetic fields;

optics, the study of the behavior of light and its interaction with materials;

quantum mechanics, a collection of theories connecting the behavior of matter at the

submicroscopic level to macroscopic observations.

Objectives of Physics

To find the limited number of fundamental laws that govern natural phenomena.

To use these laws to develop theories that can predict the results of future experiments.

Express the laws in the language of mathematics

Mathematics provides the bridge between theory and experiment.

Model. Theory. Law. Principle.

A model is a kind of picture or analogy that helps to describe the phenomena in terms of something

we already know about.

A theory, often developed from a model, is usually deeper and more complex than a simple model.

A scientific law is a concise statement, often expressed in the form of an equation, which

quantitatively describes a wide range of phenomena.

To be called a law, a statement must be found experimentally valid over a wide range of observed

phenomena. For less general statements, the term principle is often used (such as Archimedes

principle).
Fundamental Quantities of SI (Systeme International) and Their Units
Mechanics

The study of the motion of objects, and the related concepts of force and energy, form the field

called mechanics.

Mechanics is customarily divided into two parts:

kinematics, which is the description of how objects move.

dynamics, which deals with force and why objects move as they do.
Kinematics

Describes the motion of object while ignoring the external agents that might have caused or

modified the motion.

Motion of an object represents a continuous change in the object s position.

Types of Motion:

Translational

An example is a car traveling on a highway.

Rotational

An example is the Earth s spin on its axis.

Vibrational

An example is the back-and-forth movement of a pendulum.

Particle Model

We will use the particle model:

a particle is a point-like object; has mass but infinitesimal size.

A body whose size may be neglected in considering its motion is called a particle, and is a

fundamental object of study in mechanics.

Example: Sun and Earth

Reference Frames

Any measurement of position, distance, or speed must be made with respect to a reference frame.

A person walks toward the front of a train at 5 km/h. The train is moving at 80 km/h with respect to

the ground, so the walking person s speed, relative to the ground, is 85 km/h.

In physics, we often draw a set of coordinate axes, to represent a frame of reference.

Motion in one dimension. Position

The motion of a particle is completely known if the particle s position in space is known at all times.

A particle s position is the location of the particle with respect to a chosen reference point that we

can consider to be the origin of a coordinate system.

Pictorial representation

Graphical representation

Position-Time Graph
Displacement, distance, trajectory

The displacement of particle is x2 - x1 , and is represented by the arrow pointing to the right. It is

convenient to write
Average Velocity and Speed

The average velocity vx, ave of a particle is defined as the particle s displacement x divided by the

time interval t during which that displacement occurs:

The average speed vavg of a particle, a scalar quantity, is defined as the total distance traveled

divided by the total time interval required to travel that distance:

Instantaneous Velocity

Often we need to know the velocity of a particle at a particular instant in time rather than the

average velocity over a finite time interval.

The instantaneous velocity vx equals the limiting value of the ratio x/ t as t approaches zero
Acceleration

The average acceleration ax, ave of the particle is defined as the change in velocity vx divided by

the time interval t during which that change occurs:

The instantaneous acceleration equals the derivative of the velocity with respect to time, which by

definition is the slope of the velocity time graph:

Force is proportional to acceleration

Motion at Constant Acceleration

Let us see how to calculate the position x of an object after a time t when it undergoes constant

acceleration.

The definition of average velocity

Because the velocity increases at a uniform rate, the average velocity, v, will be midway between

the initial and final velocities:

We combine the last two equations with

Kinematic equations

Kinematic Equations for Motion of a Particle Under Constant Acceleration

Motion in two dimensions

This snowboarder flying through the air is an example of motion in two dimensions. In the absence

of air resistance, the path would be a perfect parabola. The gold arrow represents the downward

acceleration of gravity, g.

Galileo analyzed the motion of objects in two dimensions under the action of gravity near the Earth s

surface (now called projectile motion ) by separating its horizontal and vertical components.
Vector and Scalar Quantities

A scalar quantity is completely specified by a single value with an appropriate unit and has no

direction.

examples: temperature, volume, mass, speed, time intervals

A vector quantity is completely specified by a number and appropriate units plus a direction.

examples: displacement, velocity, acceleration, force

Car traveling on a road

Each vector is represented by an arrow.

The arrow is always drawn so that it points in the direction of the vector quantity it represents.

The length of the arrow is drawn proportional to the magnitude of the vector quantity.

Car traveling on a road, slowing down to round the curve. The green arrows represent the velocity

vector at each position.

Tail-to-tip method of adding vectors

The tail-to-tip method of adding vectors can be extended to three or more vectors.

The resultant is drawn from the tail of the first vector to the tip of the last one added.

The difference between two vectors is equal to the sum of the first plus the negative of the second.
Vectors and components

There are two ways to specify a vector in a given coordinate system:

1. We can give its components, Vx and Vy .

2. We can give its magnitude V and the angle it makes with the positive x axis.

We can shift from one description to the other using sin and cos equations and, for the reverse, by

using the theorem of Pythagoras and the definition of tangent.

Unit vectors

Vectors can be conveniently written in terms of unit vectors.

A unit vector is defined to have a magnitude exactly equal to one (1).

It is useful to define unit vectors that point along coordinate axes, and in an x, y, z rectangular

coordinate system these unit vectors are called i, j, and k .

They point, respectively, along the positive x, y, and z axes.

Any vector V can be written in terms of its components as

Displacement vector

Suppose a particle follows a path in the xy plane.

At time t1 , the particle is at point P1 , and at time t2 , it is at point P2.

The vector r1 is the position vector of the particle at time t1.

And r2 is the position vector at time t2 .

In two or three dimensions, the displacement vector is defined as the vector representing change in

position. We call it r, where

This represents the displacement during the time

interval t = t2 - t1 .
Average and instantaneous velocity

Note that the magnitude of the average velocity is not equal to the average speed, which is the

actual distance traveled along the path, l, divided by t.

Acceleration vector
Kinematic Equations for Constant Acceleration in 2 Dimensions

The first two of the equations in Table can be written more formally in vector notation.

Here, r is the position vector at any time, and r0 is the position vector at t=0.
Projectile motion

Projectile motion is the motion of an object in the air near the Earth s surface under the effect of

gravity alone.

It can be analyzed as two separate motions if air resistance can be ignored.

The horizontal component of motion is at constant velocity.

The vertical component is at constant acceleration g, due to gravity.

Although air resistance is often important, in many cases its effect can be ignored.

It could be understood by analyzing the horizontal and vertical components of the motion separately.
Projected object at an upward angle

Because of the downward acceleration of gravity, the upward component of velocity vy gradually

decreases with time until the object reaches the highest point on its path, at which point vy = 0.

The object then moves downward and vy increases in the downward direction (becoming more

negative). vx remains constant.

Kinematic Equations for Projectile Motion

We can simplify equations for the case of projectile motion because we can set ax = 0.
Level Horizontal Range

The total distance the object traveled during projectile motion is called the horizontal range R.

where
Thank you