Chapter 2 Motion Along a Straight Line
2-0. Mathematical Concept
2.1. Motion
2.2. Position and Displacement
2.3. Average Velocity and Average Speed
2.4. Instantaneous Velocity and Speed
2.5. Acceleration
2.6. Constant Acceleration: A Special Case
2.7. Another Look at Constant Acceleration
2.8. Free-Fall Acceleration
2.9. Graphical Integration in Motion Analysis
2.10. Exercise Problems
Example 1 Using Trigonometric Functions
On a sunny day, a tall
building casts a shadow
that is 67.2 m long. The
angle between the sun’s
rays and the ground is
=50.0°, as Figure 1.6
shows. Determine the
height of the building.
Trigonometric Functions
h0 h0
sin 1
sin ( )
h h
ha ha1
cos cos ( )
h h
h0 h0
tan 1
tan ( )
ha ha
PYTHAGOREAN THEOREM
2 2 2
h h0 ha
Defining a Coordinate System
One-dimensional coordinate system consists of:
• a point of reference known as the origin (or zero point),
• a line that passes through the chosen origin called a
coordinate axis, one direction along the coordinate axis,
chosen as positive and the other direction as negative,
and the units we use to measure a quantity
Scalars and Vectors
• A scalar quantity is one that can be described with a
single number (including any units) giving its magnitude.
• A Vector must be described with both magnitude and
direction.
A vector can be represented by an
arrow:
•The length of the arrow represents
the magnitude (always positive) of
the vector.
•The direction of the arrow represents
the direction of the vector.
A component of a vector along an axis
(one-dimension)
A UNIT VECTOR FOR
A COORDINATE AXIS
is a dimensionless
vector that points in the
direction along a
coordinate axis that is
chosen to be positive.
A one-dimensional vector can be constructed by:
•Multiply the unit vector by the magnitude of the vector
•Multiply a sign: a positive sign if the vector points to the same
direction of the unit vector; a negative sign if the vector points to
the opposite direction of the unit vector.
A component of a vector along an axis=sign × magnitude
Difference between vectors and scalars
• The fundamental distinction between
scalars and vectors is the characteristic of
direction. Vectors have it, and scalars do
not.
• Negative value of a scalar means how
much it below zero; negative component
of a vector means the direction of the
vector points to a negative direction.
Motion
• The world, and
everything in it, moves.
• Kinematics: describes
motion.
• Dynamics: deals with
the causes of motion.
One-dimensional position vector
• The magnitude of the position vector is a scalar that denotes the
distance between the object and the origin.
• The direction of the position vector is positive when the object is
located to the positive side of axis from the origin and negative
when the object is located to the negative side of axis from the
origin.
Displacement
• DISPLACEMENT is defined as the change of an object's
position that occurs during a period of time.
• The displacement is a vector that points from an object’s
initial position to its final position and has a magnitude
that equals the shortest distance between the two
positions.
• SI Unit of Displacement: meter (m)
Example 2: Determine the displacement in the following cases:
(a) A particle moves along a line from
to
(b) A particle moves from to
EXAMPLE 3: Displacements
Three pairs of initial and final positions along an x
axis represent the location of objects at two
successive times: (pair 1) –3 m, +5 m; (pair 2) –
3 m, –7 m; (pair 3) 7 m, –3 m.
• Which pairs give a negative displacement?
Velocity and Speed
A student standing still with
the back of her belt at a
horizontal distance of 2.00
m to the left of a spot of the
sidewalk designated as the
origin.
A student starting to walk
slowly. The horizontal
position of the back of her
belt starts at a horizontal
distance of 2.47 m to the
left of a spot designated as
the origin. She is speeding
up for a few seconds and
then slowing down.
Average Velocity
Displacement
Average velocity=
Elapsed time
x x x2 x1
v i i
t t t2 t1
• x2 and x1 are components of the position vectors at the
final and initial times, and angle brackets denotes the
average of a quantity.
• SI Unit of Average Velocity: meter per second (m/s)
• Example : find the average velocity for
the student motion represented by the
graph shown in Fig. between the times
t1 = 1.0 s and t2 = 1.5 s.
Average Speed
Average speed is defined as:
Instantaneous Velocity and Speed
x dx dx
v lim i
t 0 t dt dt
• The instantaneous velocity of an object can be obtained
by taking the slope of a graph of the position component
vs. time at the point associated with that moment in time
• The instantaneous velocity can be obtained by taking a
derivative with respect to time of the object's position.
• Instantaneous speed, which is typically called simply
speed, is just the magnitude of the instantaneous
velocity vector,
How to Describe Change of Velocity ?
Fig(a)the position x(t)of a particle
moving with constant acceleration
Fig(b)its velocity v(t) given at each
point by the slope of the curve of
x(t)
Fig(c)its constant acceleration
equal to the constant slope of the
curve of v(t).
Average Acceleration
Change in velocity
Average acceleration=
Elapsed time
v2 v1 v
a
t2 t1 t
SI Unit of Average Acceleration: meter
per second squared (m/s2)
Instantaneous acceleration:
2
dv d dx d x
a ( ) 2
dt dt dt dt
Instantaneous acceleration (or simply acceleration)
a is the first time derivative of velocity v(t) and
the second time derivative of position x(t)
• An object is accelerated even if all that changes
is only the direction of its velocity and not its
speed.
• It is important to realize that speeding up is not
always associated with an acceleration that is
positive.
• Likewise, slowing down is not always associated
with an acceleration that is negative.
• The relative directions of an object's velocity and
acceleration determine whether the object will
speed up or slow down.
Constant Acceleration: A Special Case
Equations of Motion with Constant Acceleration
Free-Fall Acceleration
A feather and an apple free fall in
vacuum at the same magnitude of
acceleration g.
The acceleration increases the
distance between successive
images.
In the absence of air, the feather
and apple fall together.
Free-Fall Acceleration
An important example of straight-line motion with
constant acceleration is that of an object rising or
falling freely near Earth’s surface.
The constant acceleration equations describe this
motion, but we make two changes in notation:
(1)we refer the motion to the vertical y axis with +y
vertically up;
(2) we replace a with -g, where g is the magnitude of
the free-fall acceleration. Near Earth’s surface, g "
9.8 m/s2 (" 32 ft/s2).
Graphical Integration in Motion Analysis
This area gives the
change in velocity
This area gives the change in
position.
When we have a graph of an object’s acceleration versus time, we can integrate on the graph
to find the velocity.
Exercise Problem 2.4-4
An automobile travels on a straight road for 40 km at 30
km/h. It then continues in the same direction for another
40 km at 60 km/h.
(a) What is the average velocity of the car during the full
80 km trip? (Assume that it moves in the positive x
direction.)
(b) What is the average speed?
(c) Graph x versus t and indicate how the average
velocity is found on the graph.
Solution
• During the first part of the motion, the displacement is Δx1 = 40 km and the
time interval is
• Similarly, during the second part the displacement is Δx2 = 40 km and the
time interval is
• The total displacement is Δx = Δx1 + Δx2 = 40 km + 40 km = 80 km, and
the total time elapsed is Δt = Δt1 + Δt2 = 2.00 h. Consequently, the average
velocity is
(b) In this case, the average speed is the same as the magnitude of the
average velocity:
(c) The graph of the entire trip is shown below
Exercise Problem 2.5-15
(a) If a particle’s position is given by
(where t is in seconds and x is in meters), what is its velocity at
s? (b) Is it moving in the positive or negative direction of x
Just then? (c) What is its speed just then?
Solution:
(a)The velocity of the particle is
Thus, at t = 1 s, the velocity is v = (–12 + (6)(1)) = –6 m/s.
(b) Since v < 0, it is moving in the –x direction at t = 1 s.
(c) At t = 1 s, the speed is |v| = 6 m/s.
Exercise Problem 2.9-45
(a) With what speed must a ball be thrown vertically
from ground level to rise to a maximum height of 50 m?
(b) How long will it be in the air? (c) Sketch graphs of y, v,
and a versus t for the ball. On the first two graphs,
indicate the time at which 50 m is reached.
Solution
In this problem a ball is being thrown vertically upward. We neglect air
resistance for the duration of the motion (between “launching” and “landing”),
so a = –g = –9.8 m/s2 (we take downward to be the –y direction). We use the
equations in Table 2-1 (with Δy replacing Δx) because this is a = constant
motion:
We set y0 = 0. Upon reaching the maximum height y, the speed of the ball is
momentarily zero (v = 0). Therefore, we can relate its initial speed v0 to y via
the equation
The time it takes for the ball to reach maximum height is given by
or t=Vo/g
Therefore, for the entire trip (from the time it leaves the ground until the
time it returns to the ground), the total flight time is
(a)At the highest point v = 0 and v gy 0 = 2 . Since y = 50 m we find
(b) Using the result from (a) for v0, we find the total flight time to be
(c) SI units are understood in the x and v graphs shown. The acceleration
graph is a horizontal line at –9.8 m/s2.
