Motion and Forces Flashcards
What are vectors?
Quantities that have both size (or magnitude) and (specific) direction, such as force, weight, acceleration, displacement, momentum, etc
What are scalars?
Quantities that do not have specific direction but do have size (magnitude), such as distance, energy, time, speed, mass and temperature
What is velocity?
Speed in a set direction
What is displacement?
Distance travelled in a straight line (distance covered)
What is acceleration?
How fast velocity changes
How do you calculate speed?
Distance/Time
What do the following mean in a Distance/Time graph: -Gradient -Straight increasing line -Flat sections -Steeper graph -Curves -Curve getting steeper -Levelling off/decreasing gradient ?
- Speed
- Steady/Constant speed
- Where it has stopped
- Going faster
- Acceleration
- Speeding up
- Slowing down
What is a tangent?
A line that is parallel to the curve at that point
How do you calculate the gradient of a line?
Change in the vertical/Change in the horizontal (Rise/Run)
How do you calculate the average speed on a Distance/Time graph?
Total distance travelled/Time taken to travel total distance
What do the following mean in a Velocity/Time graph: -Gradient -Flat sections -Steep slope -Uphill slope Downhill slope -Curve -Straight line up or down
- Acceleration
- Steady speeds
- The greater the acceleration/deceleration
- Acceleration
- Deceleration
- Changing acceleration
- Constant acceleration/deceleration
What is the area of the ‘inside’ of the graph equal to?
The distance travelled in that time interval
How do you calculate acceleration?
Final velocity-Starting velocity/Time
What are the units for acceleration?
M/s squared
When can you only use a tangent?
On a curve
How do you calculate final velocity?
Rearrange equation of
V squared - U squared = 2 X acceleration X distance
How do you calculate force?
Acceleration X Mass
Why do you transfer masses during the trolley experiment?
To keep the mass of the whole system 9trolly and mass of hook) the same
What safety precaution should you take for the trolley experiment?
Stay standing so you can move away quickly in case the trolley or weights fall, or use a newspaper-filled box to land
Why should the trolley hold a piece of card with a gap in the middle?
It will interrupt the beam of light from the two light gates (twice) and send this data to the data logger/computer that it is connected to
How does the data logger calculate the acceleration of the trolley?
By doing Speed = Distance/Time to get the velocity from each light gate and then putting it into the acceleration equation to get the acceleration between the two light gates of the trolley
How do you calculate weight/force (newtons)?
Mass (kg) X Gravitational Field Strength (N/kg)
What does Newton’s first law state?
A resultant force is needed to make something start moving, speed up or slow down
What will a non-zero resultant force always produce?
Acceleration or deceleration in the direction of the force
