Modules 3 Definitions Flashcards
Acceleration
The rate of change of velocity
Average Speed
Distance over time for the entire region of interest
Braking distance
The distance travelled between the brakes being applied and the vehicle coming to a stop.
Displacement
The direct distance between and object’s starting and ending positions. It is a vector quantity and so has both a direction and a magnitude.
Displacement-Time graphs
Plots showing how displacement changes over a period of time. The gradient gives the velocity. Curved lines represent acceleration.
Free-fall
An object is said to be in free fall when the only force acting on it is the force of gravity
Instantaneous speed
The exact speed of an object at a specific given point.
Projectile motion
The motion of an object that is fired from a point and then upon which only gravity acts. When solving projectile motion problems, it is useful to split the motion into horizontal and vertical components.
Reaction time
The time taken to process a stimulus and trigger a response to it. It is affected by alcohol, drugs and tiredness.
Stopping distance
The sum of thinking distances and braking distance for a driven vehicle.
Thinking distance
The distance travelled in the time it takes for the driver to react. It is affected by alcohol, drugs and tiredness.
Velocity-time graphs
Plots showing how velocity changes over a period of time. The gradient gives acceleration. |Curved lines represent changing acceleration.
Velocity
The rate of change of displacement. It is a vector quantity and so has both a direction and a magnitude.
Archimedes’ Principle
The upwards force acting of an object submerged in a fluid, is equal to the weight of the fluid it displaces.
Centre of Gravity
The single point through which the object’s weight can be said to act.
Centre of mass
The single point through which all the mass of an object can be said to act
Couple
Two equal and opposite parallel forces that act on an object through different lines of action. It has the effect of causing a rotation without translation.
Density
The mass per unit volume of a material.
Drag
The frictional force that an object experiences when moving through a fluid.
Equilibrium
For an object to be in equilibrium, both the resultant force and resultant moment acting on the object must be equal to 0.
Free-body diagram
A diagram showing all the forces acting on an object. It is a good starting point to any mechanics problem.
Friction
The resistive force produced when there is relative movement between two surfaces.
Moment of force
The product of a force and the perpendicular distance from the line of action of the force to the pivot.
Newton
The unit of force
Newton’s Second Law
The sum of the forces acting on an object is equal to the rate of change of momentum of the object. It is also expressed as the net force acting on an object equalling the product of the object’s mass and acceleration.
Normal contact force
The reaction force between an object and surface
Pressure
The force that a surface experiences per unit area. It is measured in pascals (Pa)
Principle of moments
For an object to be in equilibrium the sum of the clockwise moments acting about a point must be equal to the sum of the anticlockwise moments acting about the point.
Tension
The result of two forces acting on an object that occurs when the resistive and driving forces acting on the object are equal to each other.
Terminal velocity
The maximum velocity of an object that occurs when the resistive and driving forces acting on the object are equal to each other.
Triangle of forces
A method of determining the resultant force of to forces. The two forces are joined tip to tail and the resultant is given by the force that would complete the triangle.
Upthrust
The upwards force that a fluid applies on an object
Weight
The product of an object’s mass and the gravitational field strength at its location.
Conservation of Energy
In a closed system with no external forces the total energy of the system before an event is equal to the total energy of the system after the event. The energy does not need to be in the same form after the event as it was before the event.
Efficiency
The useful output of a system divided by the total output.
Gravitational potential energy
The energy gained by an object when it is raised by a height in a gravitational field.
Kinetic energy
The energy an object has due to its motion. It is the amount of energy that would be transferred from the object when it decelerates to rest.
Power
The work done or energy transferred by a system divided by the time taken for that to be done.
Work done
The energy transferred when a force moves an object over a distance.
Brittle
A brittle object is one that shows very little strain before reaching its breaking stress.
Compression
The result of two coplanar forces acting into an object. Compression usually results in a reduction in the length of the object.
Compressive deformation
The changing of an object’s shape due to compressive forces.
Ductile
A material is ductile if it can undergo very large extensions without failure. Ductile materials can be stretched into wires.
Elastic deformation
If a material deforms with elastic behaviour, it will return to its original shape when the deforming forces are removed. The object will not be permanently deformed.
Elastic potential energy
The energy stored in an object when it is stretched. It is equal to the work done to stretch the object and can be determined from the area under a force-extension graph.
Extention
The increase of an object’s length
Force-Extension graph
A plot showing how an object extends as the force applied increases. For an elastic object, the gradient should be linear up to the limit of proportionality. The gradient gives the spring constant.
Hooke’s Law
The extension of an elastic object will be directly proportional to the force applied to it up to the object’s limit of proportionality.
Plastic Deformation
If a material deforms with plastic behaviour, it will not return to its original shape when the deforming forces are removed. The object will be permanently deformed.
Polymeric
A material made from polymers.
Spring constant
The constant of proportionality for the extension of a spring under a force. The higher the spring constant, the greater the force needed to achieve a given extension.
Strain
The ratio of an objects extension to its original length. It is a ratio of two lengths and so has no unit.
Stress
The amount of force acting per unit area. Measured in Pascal (Pa)
Tensile deformation
The changing of an objects shape due to tensile forces.
Ultimate tensile strength
The maximum stress that an object can withstand before fracture occurs.
Young Modulas
The ratio of stress to strain for a given material. Its unit is Pascal (Pa)
Conservation of momentum
The total momentum of a system before an even must be equal to the total momentum of the system after the event, assuming no external forces act.
Elastic collisions
A collision in which the total kinetic energy of the system before the collision is equal to the total kinetic energy of the system after the collision.
Impulse
The change of momentum of an object when a force acts on it. It is equal to the product of the force acting on the object and the length of time over which it acts.
Inelastic collisions
A collision in which the total kinetic energy of the system before the collision is not equal to the kinetic energy of the system after the collision.
Linear Momentum
The product of an object’s mass and linear velocity.
Newton’s First Law
An object will remain in its current state of motion, unless acted on by a resultant force. An object requires a resultant force to be able to accelerate.
Newton’s Second Law
The sum of the forces acting on an object is equal to the rate of change of momentum of the object.
Newton’s Third Law
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. If an object exerts a force on another object, then the other object must exert a force back, that is opposite in direction and equal in magnitude.