Motion Flashcards
How can the speed of an object be calculated?
speed, m/s = distance travelled, m ÷ time, s
What does the gradient of a distance-time graph represent?
What does a constant gradient mean?
The speed
Constant (straight line) gradient means constant speed.
What does a distance-time graph show?
A distance-time graph shows the distance of an object from its starting point agains the time taken.
What is the speed of an object?
The speed of an object is the distance travelled each second.
What does a horizontal line on a distance-time graph show?
The object is stationary.
What is the velocity of an object?
What happens when an object changes direction?
Velocity of an object is it’s speed in a given direction.
It changes velocity even if it’s speed remains the same.
What is acceleration?
A change in velocity in metres per second per second.
How is acceleration calculated?
a = v-u/t
a is the acceleration in metres per second squared.
v is the final velocity in metres per second.
u is the initial velocity in metres per second.
t is the time taken for the change in seconds.
What is deceleration?
Deceleration is a negative acceleration, i.e the object is slowing down.
What does a velocity-time graph show?
What does the gradient represent?
A velocity-time graph shows the velocity of an object against the time taken.
The gradient represents acceleration.
If the line on a velocity-time graph is horizontal, what does this say about the object?
What does a negative gradient show?
The acceleration of the object is zero, therefore the object is travelling at a steady speed.
The object is decelerating.
What does the area under a velocity-time graph represent?
The area under the line on a velocity-time graph represents the distance travelled in a given time, the bigger the area, the greater the distance travelled.
