Motion

Question 0

Speed

Answer 0

How fast an object is moving; a scalar, which does not give the direction of motion.

Question 1

Displacement

Answer 1

The change in position of an object; a vector quantity.

Question 2

Rate of Change

Answer 2

How fast a quantity is changing over time; calculated as average rate of change.

Question 3

Photogate

Answer 3

A timing device used in motion experiments, in which light - sensitive photocells are attached to a computer.

Question 4

Ultra-sonic motion

Answer 4

A riming device which emit short bursts of “clicks” of high-frequency sound waves and detects the returning echo; often connected to a computer.

Question 5

Distance

Answer 5

The total length of a journey along every twist and turn of the path.

Question 6

Scalar

Answer 6

A physical quantity that has magnitude (size) but not direction.

Question 7

Time

Answer 7

Describes when an event occurs

Question 8

Acceleration

Answer 8

How much an object’s velocity changes in a certain time; that is, rare of change of velocity; a vector quantity.

Question 9

Vector

Answer 9

A physical quantity that has both magnitude (size) and direction.

Question 10

Velocity

Answer 10

How fast an object’s positioning is changing, that is the rate of change of position; a vectors quantity, with both speed and direction.

Question 11

Position

Answer 11

An object’s location as seen by an observer from a particular view-point; a vector quantity, with both distance and direction.

Question 12

Vector diagram

Answer 12

A diagram of two or more vectors, arranged so that the end of vector is the starting point for the next vector (“tip-to-tail”); used to find vector sums.

Question 13

Linear motion

Answer 13

Motion forward or backward along a straight line path; directions for position, displacing, velocity and acceleration can be indicated using + and - signs; also called one-dimensional motion.

Question 14

Readability

Answer 14

An instrument’s greatest possible precision of measurement.

Question 15

Time interval

Answer 15

The duration of an event, calculated as (final time= initial time)

Question 16

Precision

Answer 16

The amount of information (by significant digits) a measuring instrument provides.

Question 17

Vector Sum

Answer 17

The result of adding two or more individual vectors together, “tip-to-tail”.

Question 18

Instantaneous

Answer 18

The value of a quantity at a specific moment; on a graph, that instantaneous slope is measured from a tangent line.

Question 19

Ticker Timer

Answer 19

A timing device which makes a series of dots on a paper tape as it is pulled through a timer.

Question 20

Position-Time graph

Answer 20

A graph is which an object’s position is plotted on the vertical axis and time of the horizontal axis.

Question 21

Conventions

Answer 21

Agreements among scientists to meatier and calculate using the same units and symbols.