KEY CONCEPTS

KINEMATICS

1. MOTION IN ONE DIMENSION

Kinematics is the study of how objects move, and the formal description of that
motion. Kinematics doesn’t concern the forces that cause the motion or the masses
involved. Instead it addresses such questions as: How far does an object move? How
long does it take? How fast is it moving?

The relevant quantities in kinematics are displacement, time, velocity, and

acceleration. Displacement is related to the distance an object moves, displacement
measures the change in position and is written as Δx. Time is denoted either as t, a
specific moment in time, or as Δt, the time interval over which some event occurs.
Velocity refers to how fast an object is moving and in what direction. The magnitude of
velocity is speed. For motion in one dimension the direction is either forward or
backward, and therefore the corresponding magnitude of the velocity is either positive
or negative. The average velocity over some distance is the displacement divided by the
time interval it takes to travel that displacement:

Δx
vavg =
Δt

However, motion does not always take place with a single constant velocity. In such a
case it is necessary to know an object’s velocity at a particular instant in time. This can
be determined by taking the limit of our average velocity as the change in time, and thus
also the change in position, become increasingly small. This instantaneous velocity, v,
is therefore the derivative of the position with respect to time. For motion in one
dimension this can be denoted as:

Δx dx
v = limΔt→0 =
Δt dt

Because velocity can change, it is necessary to determine how much the velocity
changes and the time it takes for the change to occur. This is the concept of
acceleration. If an object changes its velocity by an amount Δv over a time interval Δt,
then the average acceleration is:
Δv
aavg =
Δt
 KEY CONCEPTS
KINEMATICS
Thus, just as velocity is a measure of how quickly position changes, acceleration is a
measure of how quickly the velocity changes. Therefore, the instantaneous
acceleration is the limit as the time interval becomes very small, or just the derivative of
the velocity with respect to time. This can be denoted as:

Δv dv
a = limΔt→0 =
Δt dt

In the particular case where acceleration is constant, we can precisely describe the
entire motion in one dimension with the following equations:

v = v0 + at
1 2
x = x0 + v0t + at
2
2
v = v0 + 2a( x − x0 )
2

These equations allow us to relate displacement, time, velocity and acceleration in a

wide variety of situations.
A common example of motion with constant acceleration is an object in free fall near
the Earth’s surface. Galileo demonstrated that objects fall with the same constant
acceleration. This acceleration due to gravity, g, is equal to 9.8 m/s2. In other words,
falling objects increase their speed by 9.8 m/s during each second that they fall. Strictly
speaking, objects freely fall only in a vacuum. Because the motion is vertical,
displacement is in terms of y and the equations of motion become:

v = v0 − gt
1 2
y = y0 + v0 t − gt
2
2
v = v0 − 2g(y − y0 )
2

2. MOTION IN TWO DIMENSIONS

For motion in two dimensions, describing the direction of the motion is more complex
than for motion in one dimension. Vectors are needed to describe the motion. A vector,
denoted in text by a boldfaced symbol, represents both magnitude and direction.
Graphically, a vector is represented by an arrow. The arrow’s length indicates the
magnitude of the vector, while its direction represents the direction of the displacement,
velocity, or acceleration. To add vectors we place the tip of one vector at the tail of
another vector, and the sum is the single vector that extends directly from the tail of the
first vector to the tip of the second vector as illustrated below:

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 KEY CONCEPTS
KINEMATICS

A+B
B

It is useful to represent a vector in terms of its components, two perpendicular vectors

that add up to the vector of interest:

Δr
Δy
θ
Δx

Thus we say that Δr = Δx + Δy . Because the x and y directions are perpendicular to

each other, they are independent of each other and the equations for one-dimensional
G
kinematics can be used for each. Therefore, the magnitude and direction of Δr can be
related to its components as:

Δr = Δr = Δx 2 + Δy 2
Δy
tan θ =
Δx
Δx = Δr cosθ
Δy = Δr sin θ

Similar equations can be used to break down the velocity and acceleration vectors into
their component vectors:

Velocity in two dimensions:

v = v = vx2 + vy2
vy
tanθ =
vx
v x = v cosθ
v y = v sinθ

Acceleration in two dimensions:

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 KEY CONCEPTS
KINEMATICS
a = a = ax2 + ay2
ay
tanθ =
ax
ax = acosθ
a y = a sinθ

By using the appropriate vector quantities, the kinematics equations in two dimensions
can be generalized as:

1
x = x0 + v 0 t + a t 2
2
v = v0 + a t

Or equivalently we may write two separate equations, one for the motion in the x-
direction:

1
x = x0 + v0x t + ax t 2
2
vx = v0 x + ax t

and one for the motion in the y-direction:

1
y = y0 + v y t + a y t 2
2
v y = v0 y + a y t

An important example of motion in two dimensions is projectile motion. In this type of

motion an object moves with constant velocity in the x-direction and with constant
acceleration, ay = -g, in the y-direction. Solving the equations of motion for y as a
function of x, it can be seen that the path of the motion describes a parabola:

⎛ g ⎞
y = x tan θ − x 2 ⎜ 2 2 ⎟
⎝ 2v 0 cos θ ⎠

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 KEY CONCEPTS
KINEMATICS

The distance a projectile goes before returning to the height from which it was launched
is the range, R, and can be determined from the equation:

v02 sin2θ0
R=
g