Vocab & Concepts: Kinematics

Question 1

How is position described?

Answer 1

Relative to a reference point which includes magnitude and direction.

Question 2

What is displacement?

Answer 2

Change in position of an object in a straight line including direction.

Question 3

What is distance?

Answer 3

The magnitude of the ground covered.

Question 4

What are vector and scalar quantities?

Answer 4

A vector quantities includes both magnitude and direction whereas a scalar quantity only includes magnitude.

Question 5

Explain speed and velocity and the difference between them?

Answer 5

Describe the amount of change in an objects position over a time interval. Speed is equal to distance over time (d/t) and velocity is equal to displacement over time (d/t). The difference between speed and velocity is that speed is a scalar quantity while velocity is a vector quantity.

Question 6

What is acceleration?

Answer 6

Describes the rate of change in velocity.

Question 7

Acceleration and velocity can be _______ or _______

Answer 7

Constant or variable

Question 8

What happens with constant velocity or acceleration?

Answer 8

Changes by the same amount each second.

Question 9

What happens with variable velocity or acceleration?

Answer 9

Changes by variable amounts each second.

Question 10

The slope of the distance-time graph is equal to the _______.

Answer 10

Speed of the object’s motion that was graphed.

Question 11

The slope of the displacement-time graph is equal to the _______.

Answer 11

Velocity of the object’s motion that was graphed.

Question 12

The slope of the velocity-time graph is equal to the _______.

Answer 12

Acceleration of the object’s motion that was graphed.

Question 13

What are vectors?

Answer 13

A vector involved is displacements, for instance when an object undergoes two displacements you can find total displacement by placing the vectors tip to tail. Vector quantities are not fully described unless both magnitude and direction are given.

Question 14

What is two dimensional motion?

Answer 14

When objects are thrown in the air at slow moderate speeds, they create parabolic arcs, which can be analysed with both vertical and horizontal motion.

Question 15

What speed does an objects travel when free falling downwards?

Answer 15

9.81 m/s/s

Question 16

What speed does an objects travel when free falling upwards?

Answer 16

-9.81 m/s/s

Question 17

What is speed and average speed?

Answer 17

The amount of distance covered over time and average speed can be thought of as the average of the speedometer readings.

Question 18

What is velocity?

Answer 18

The change in position over time.

Question 19

What is average velocity?

Answer 19

The average of instantaneous velocity.

Question 20

What is instantaneous velocity?

Answer 20

The velocity at a instant in time. This can be calculated from a position time graph by drawing a line of tangent from a point and calculating the slope of the line will give you velocity for that instant.

Question 21

What is uniformly accelerated motion?

Answer 21

Constant change in velocity per unit time.

Question 22

What is non-uniform motion?

Answer 22

Objects speed and velocity are changing.

Question 23

What is a projectile?

Answer 23

An object thrown or released into the air. This includes objects dropped from rest or thrown vertically upwards or downwards.