Distance and displacement, speed and velocity, acceleration, and reading distance-time and velocity-time graphs including gradients and areas.
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1.What is the difference between distance and displacement?
Distance is how far an object has travelled and is a scalar. Displacement is the straight line distance and direction from start to finish, and is a vector.
2.What is the difference between speed and velocity?
Speed is how fast something is moving. Velocity is speed in a stated direction, so it is a vector.
3.State the equation for speed.
distance travelled = speed x time
4.A car travels 300 m in 20 s. Calculate its speed.
300 divided by 20 = 15 m/s.
5.Give a typical walking speed.
About 1.5 metres per second.
6.Give a typical running speed.
About 3 metres per second.
7.Give a typical cycling speed.
About 6 metres per second.
8.What is the speed of sound in air?
About 330 metres per second.
9.Can an object move at constant speed but changing velocity?
Yes. Moving in a circle at a steady speed means the direction is always changing, so the velocity changes.
10.State the equation for acceleration.
acceleration = change in velocity divided by time taken
11.What is the unit of acceleration?
Metres per second squared.
12.A car goes from 5 m/s to 25 m/s in 4 s. Calculate the acceleration.
(25 minus 5) divided by 4 = 5 m/s squared.
13.What does a negative acceleration mean?
The object is slowing down, which is called deceleration.
14.State the equation linking velocity, acceleration and distance.
final velocity squared minus initial velocity squared = 2 x acceleration x distance
15.What is the acceleration of a falling object near the Earth, ignoring resistance?
About 9.8 metres per second squared.
16.What does the gradient of a distance-time graph represent?
The speed.
17.What does a horizontal line on a distance-time graph mean?
The object is stationary.
18.What does a curved line on a distance-time graph mean?
The object is accelerating or decelerating.
19.How do you find the speed at a point on a curved distance-time graph?
Draw a tangent at that point and calculate its gradient.
20.What does the gradient of a velocity-time graph represent?
The acceleration.
21.What does the area under a velocity-time graph represent?
The distance travelled.
22.What does a horizontal line on a velocity-time graph mean?
Constant velocity, so zero acceleration.
23.A velocity-time graph shows a straight line from 0 to 20 m/s over 10 s. Find the acceleration.
20 divided by 10 = 2 m/s squared.
24.For that same graph, find the distance travelled.
Area of the triangle = 0.5 x 10 x 20 = 100 m.
25.How do you find distance from a curved velocity-time graph?
Estimate the area under the curve, for example by counting squares.
26.What is the difference between a steep and shallow distance-time gradient?
A steeper gradient means a higher speed.
27.Which graph would show an object at rest as a line along the time axis?
A velocity-time graph, where zero velocity is a horizontal line at zero.
28.Why is displacement sometimes zero when distance is not?
If an object returns to its starting point, it has travelled a distance but has no overall change in position.
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