1. Motion in One Dimension (Position vs. Time) Chapter 5.1

2. Distance, Position and Displacement
Distance: The total distance that an object has moved irrespective of your starting position.
Ex. You walk 3 meters north and then walk 3 meters south. What distance have you traveled?
6 meters

3. Distance, Position and Displacement
Position: Where you are relative to a starting or reference point.
Ex.: You walk 3 meters north.
Your position is 3 meters from your starting or reference point.

4. Distance, Position and Displacement
Displacement: A measure in distance relative to a starting point that includes direction.
Ex.: You walk 3 meters north and then 3 meters south. What is your displacement?
0 meters.
Ex.: Your walk 6 meters north and 8 meters east. What is your distance traveled? What is your displacement?
Distance: 14 meters.
Displacement: 10 meters NE.

5. Motion of Objects
To describe the motion of an object, what other information will we need other than position, distance or displacement?
Time
If I have the object’s position and time, what can be determined about the object’s motion?
Speed or Velocity, or Acceleration.
Now, lets collect some data

6. 1. Collect Data
Collect bowling ball data and have students plot it on a graph.

7. 2. Choose appropriate axes and plot the data.

8. 3. Draw a curve that provides a “best fit” to the points.

9. What information does the shape of the curve provide?
Straight line = constant velocity.
Changing curve = changing velocity(i.e. acceleration).
Time
Position
Constant Velocity
Position
Time
Changing Velocity

10. What information does the shape of the curve provide?
Positive Acceleration
Negative Acceleration
Time
Position
Time
Position
Decreasing Velocity
Position
Time
Position
Time
Increasing Velocity

11. Characterize the motion of the object from A to E.
Constant velocity in the positive direction.
Decreasing velocity.
Stationary.
Increasing velocity.
Time
Position A B C D E

12. What information does the slope of the curve provide?
Positively sloped curve = movement in the positive direction.
Negatively sloped curve = movement in the negative direction.
Time
Position
Positive Direction
Time
Position
Negative Direction

13. What else does the slope tell us?
What is the motion described by each curve?
How does the velocity of each curve compare to one another?
A is stationary
B is moving at the same
speed as C, but their starting
position is different.
D is moving slower than
B or C.
Time
Position A C B D

14. What is the significance of the slope of the position vs. time curve?
Since position is on the y-axis and time is on the x-axis, it follows that the slope of the line would be:
Therefore, slope must equal speed or velocity.
Time
Position

15. Determining the slope of the curve.
1997 World Championships - Athens, Greece
Maurice Green
100 90 80
y = 11.65x R
= 1.00 2 70 60
Distance (m) 50 40 30 20
y = 1.13x
+ 4.08x R 2
= 1.00 10 2 4 6 8 10
Time (s)

16. Velocity determined from the slope of the curve.
rise
run
df – di
tf – ti
85m-50m
8.4s-5.4s
m = 11.7m/s
Since m = v:
v = 11.7 m/s
1997 World Championships - Athens, Greece
Maurice Green
y = 11.65x R 2
= 1.00 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
100 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Time (s)
Distance (m)
Slope =
m =
m =

17. Key Ideas
Although space exists in 3 dimensions, analysis of objects in motion can be limited to one dimension to simplify problems.
When graphing position vs. time, use the x-axis for time and the y-axis for position.
By analyzing the shape of a position vs. time graph, the relative motion of the object can be determined, i.e. constant velocity, acceleration, stationary.
The slope of the position vs. time graph provides the average velocity over the time interval.

18. Analyzing motion of more than one object.
Two vehicles travel through a speed trap traveling at two different velocities.

19. What can be inferred from the following graph?