General Physics 1

Module

MOTION
Kinematics is the study of the classification and comparisons of motion.
 Motion involved is along a straight line only. The line may be vertical, horizontal, or slanted.
 The slowing down, speeding up, stopping or reversing of direction of an object including the time involve in
changing direction are the only concern of this material.
 The moving object must be a particle or an object that moves like a particle.
POSITION, DISPLACEMENT AND DISTANCE
In locating an object or a place means finding its position relative to some reference point often origin (zero
point) of an axis. The positive direction of the axis is increasing numbers which is to the right while the opposite
is the negative direction

Knowing how far something moves is not sufficient. You must also know in what direction the object moved.
This is known as displacement. Displacement is a vector quantity. It has both magnitude and direction.

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AVERAGE SPEED AND AVERAGE VELOCITY

Speed is defined as the distance travelled in a unit time. To be more precise, the average speed is obtained by
dividing the total distance covered by the corresponding time. The mathematical description of speed is given
total distance d
by save = = Equation 1
total time t
where 𝑠𝑎𝑣𝑒 is the average speed. The SI unit for speed is 𝑚/𝑠.
Velocity is the ratio of the displacement that occurs during a particular time interval. To be more precise, we use
the average velocity. The mathematical description of velocity is given by

displacement ∆ x x 2−x 1
v ave = = = Equation 2
total time ∆ t t 2−t 1

where 𝑣𝑎𝑣𝑒 is the average velocity. The SI unit for velocity is 𝑚/𝑠. along with a specific direction because
velocity is a vector quantity. It must have a magnitude and a direction
Examples
1. You have trained all year for a marathon. In your first attempt to run a marathon, you decide that you want
to complete a 42.195 km in 2 hours. What would your average speed be?

2. Suppose you are walking home after school. The distance from school to your home is 1.5 kilometers. On
foot, you can get home in 25 minutes. However, if you rode a bicycle, you could get home in 10 minutes.
What is your average speed while walking?

a. What is your average speed while bicycling?

b. How much faster do you travel on your bicycle?

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3. A motorized balangay travels east across the Cagayan River at 8 meters per minute. If the river is 425
meters wide, how long does it take for the balangay to reach the other side?

ACCELERATION
When the velocity of a particle is changing, its motion is said to be accelerated. Just as the velocity is the
time rate of change of displacement, acceleration is the time rate of change of velocity. The mathematical
description of acceleration is given by

velocity ∆ v v f −vi
a= = = Equation 3
time ∆ t t f −t i

where a is the acceleration. A positive acceleration means that the object is accelerating while a negative
acceleration means that the object is decelerating.

1. A bus travelling from Pamplona to Tuguegarao City travels from 4.47 𝑚/𝑠 to 17 𝑚/𝑠
in 3 seconds. What is the acceleration of the bus?
SOLUTION:

2. A driver starts his park car and within 4.6 seconds, reaches a velocity of 15 𝑚/𝑠. What is the acceleration of
the car?
SOLUTION:

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UNIFORMLY ACCELERATED MOTION

Consider a body moving along the positive x direction. Taking a general case, we assume that at the initial
instant when t = 0, the initial position and velocity are given by xi and vi. Also let v be the velocity at any
arbitrary time t. the acceleration is given by

∆ v v f −v i
a= =
∆ t t f −0
v f =v i +at Equation 4
Equation 4 says that the velocity at any instant is equal to the initial velocity plus the change in velocity during
this interval, which is ∆𝑣 or a•t. Since the acceleration is constant, the average velocity is just the mean of the
initial and final values or
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v ave = (v i+ v f ) Equation 5
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The final displacement is equal to the initial displacement plus the additional displacement in the interval, that is
x f =x i+ ∆ x=x i+ v ave t Equation 6

Substituting equation 5 in equation 6 gives

Or using equation 4 gives

Or
Equation 7
Squaring both sides of the equation 4 gives

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From Equation 7, this is

Equation 8

The usefulness of equation 8 is due to the absence of the variable t. Without loss of generality, the body is at the
origin and 𝑥𝑖 = 0. equation 8 will become
Equation 9
The summary of the equation is given in Table 1

Examples
1. A car starts from rest and is given a uniform acceleration of 2 𝑚/𝑠2. Find (a) its velocity after 5 seconds and
(b) the distance travelled during this time.
a. SOLUTION:

b. SOLUTION:

2. A bullet is fired from a 45-calibre gun by Cardo of ‘Ang Probinsyano’.Supposed that the bullet is moving at a
velocity of 600 mph and is shot through a 0.25 m wall. The bullet emerges from the wall with a velocity of 250
mph. Find the (a) acceleration experienced by the bullet while passing through the sheet and (b) time taken by
the electron to pass through the sheet assuming that the acceleration of the electron is constant.

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a. SOLUTION:
From Equation 9, we have

The negative sign indicates that the bullet has lost speed/velocity while passing through the wall, that is, it was
decelerated.

b. SOLUTION:
From Equation 4, we have

ACTIVITY:
1. If a car requires 30 seconds to accelerate from zero to 90 km per hour, its average acceleration is
2. What average speed is required to run 1.61km in 4 minutes?
3. A bicyclist covers 96.56km between 2 pm and 6 pm. What was his average speed?
4. A car accelerates from 0 𝑚/𝑠 to 25𝑚/𝑠 in 5 seconds. What is the average acceleration of the car?
5. Cheetah is the fastest animal. What is its speed if it travels 112.0 meters in 4 seconds?
6. How far can a person run in 15 minutes if he or she runs at an average speed of 35 km per hour?
7. Supposed you are at Robinson’s Supermarket and you are pushing your shopping cart 15.6 meters
west across the beverage section in 5.2 seconds. What is the velocity of the shopping cart?
8. An airplane flying at a velocity of 610 𝑚/𝑠 lands and comes to a complete stop over a 53 second
period of time. What is the acceleration of the plane?
9. A seventh grader moves down the hall at 1.2 𝑚/s. When he sees a bunch of senior high school
students coming, he begins to run. After 3.2 seconds, he is moving at 3.6 𝑚/s. What is his
acceleration?
10. A car starts from a stoplight and is traveling with a velocity of 10 m/sec east in 20 seconds. What is
the acceleration of the car?
11. A girl travels 20 miles on her bicycle. The trip takes 2 hours. Express her speed in miles/hr.
12. How far (in meters) will you travel in 3 minutes running at a rate of 6 m/s?
13. How many seconds will it take for a satellite to travel 450 km at a rate of 120 m/s?
14. A ball rolls down a ramp for 15 seconds. If the initial velocity of the ball was 0.8 m/sec and the final
velocity was 7 m/sec, what was the acceleration of the ball?

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15. A ball is rolled at a velocity of 12 m/sec. After 36 seconds, it comes to a stop. What is the
acceleration of the ball?
16. How much force is needed to accelerate a truck with a mass of 2,000 kg, at a rate of 3 m/s
17. A 300 N force acts on a 25 kg object. The acceleration of the object is
18. A trip to Cape Canaveral, Florida takes 10 hours. The distance is 816 km. Calculate the average
speed.
19. What is the speed of a walking person in m/s if the person travels 1000 m in 20 minutes?
20. A meteoroid changed velocity from 1.0 km/s to 1.8 km/s in 0.03 seconds. What is the acceleration of
the meteoroid?

Activity 2
A. Average Speed
1. Calculate the speed for a car that went a distance of 125 kilometers in 2 hours time.
2. A baseball thrown a distance of 20 meters. What is its speed if it takes 0.5 seconds to cover the
distance?
3. How much time does it take for a bird flying at a speed of 45 kilometers per hour to travel a distance
of 1800 kilometers?
4. A comet is cruising through the Solar System at a speed of 50,000 kilometers per hour for 4 hours
time. What is total distance travelled by the comet during this time?
5. If it takes Shirly 3 seconds to run from the batter’s box to first base at an average speed of 6.5 meters
per second, what is the distance she covers in that time?
6. Bart ran 5000 meters from the cops and an average speed of 6 meters per second before he got
caught? How long did he run?
7. Suppose you are with your friends jogging around the oval of the Cagayan Sports Complex.
Assuming that you jog 4.0 km in 32 minutes, then 2.0 km in 22 minutes, and finally 1.0 km in 16
minutes. What is your average speed in km/min?
8. You were told by your mother that dinner will be at 6:00 PM. You left school at 5:30 PM and started
walking. Assuming that your average speed is 2 𝑚/s and the distance between the school and your
house is 3.5 km. Would you be able to get home in time for dinner? Show your computations.
9. The earth takes one year to go around the sun. The distance travelled is 584 million miles. If there are
365.25 days in a year, what speed does the earth travel?
10. Mr. Pacinos drives 64.8 km from work at a speed of 52 kilometers per hour. Mrs. Pacinos drives
90.34 kilometers from work at a speed of 65.36 kilometers per hour. They both leave at the same time.
a. Who arrives home first?
b. How many minutes later is it before the second person gets home?

B. Average Velocity
1. An airplane flies 650 kilometers east in 1.2 hours. What is the airplane’s velocity?
2. Yelena’s mother drives 12 km southwest to Robinson’s mall. What is the velocity of her mother’s
automobile if she arrives at the mall in 6 minutes?
3. Karl walks to a friend house. He walks 1200 meters north, and then he realizes he walked too far. He
turns around and walks 350 meters south. The entire walk takes him 25 minutes. What is Karl’s
velocity?
4. A particle is displaced 60 cm to the north and then is given a second displacement of 90 cm directly to
the east. What is the average velocity of the particle if it covers the entire displacement within 2.15
seconds?

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5. Liam jogs 2.5 km west and 4.5 km south. If the entire jogs took 30 minutes, what is Liam’s average
velocity?
6. A baseball game is happening at Cagayan Sports Complex. A batter batted the ball and reached a
distance of 867 meters. How much time is needed for the ball to travel the distance if its velocity is
34.45 meters per second due east?
7. After the three months quarantine period, Family Agcaoili decided to take a vacation at Blue Lagoon
Resort in Claveria, Cagayan. If the family drives 335 kilometers from San Pablo, Isabela to Claveria,
how long will it take the family to reach their destination if they travel at a
velocity of 100 kilometers per hour, northwest?
8. A Lazada delivery man realizes that he is travelling in the wrong direction on a one-way street. He
has already driven 2.13 kilometers at a velocity of 12 meters per second, east before he decided to make
a U-turn. How long did it take the delivery man to realize his error?
9. A rat is busy finding for food. It travelled 50 cm north, 25 cm east, 34 cm northeast, 29 cm south and
25 cm 300 southwest before finding a piece of cheese in the kitchen floor. Assuming that the entire
travel is 3.5 minutes, what is the rat’s average velocity?
10. A volcanologist noted that lava rushed down a volcano at 43.21 km per hour, south. How far did the
lava flow in 15 seconds?

Acceleration
1. A roller coasters velocity at the top of a hill is 8 𝑚/𝑠. 1.65 seconds later, it reaches the bottom of the
hill with a velocity of 33.45 𝑚/𝑠. What was the acceleration of the coaster?
2. A car travelling at 15 km per hour starts to decelerate steadily. It comes to a complete stop in 15
seconds. What is the car’s acceleration?
3. A Toyota Altis has an initial velocity of 5.76 𝑚/𝑠, and accelerates at a rate of 67.45 𝑚/s2 for 2.13
seconds, what will its final velocity be?
4. A housefly accelerates from 1.24 𝑚/𝑠to 6.86 𝑚/𝑠 in 2.54 seconds. What is the housefly’s average
acceleration?
5. A cable car quickly speeds up down a slope. As it starts down a slope, its velocity is 5.69 𝑚/𝑠. But
1.0 seconds later, at the bottom of the slope, its velocity became 16.2 𝑚/𝑠. What is the average
acceleration of the cable car?
6. A cyclist accelerates from 0𝑚/𝑠 to 7.68 𝑚/𝑠 in 2.31 seconds. Is this acceleration higher than that of a
car which accelerates from 0𝑚/𝑠 to 30𝑚/𝑠 in 5.2 seconds?
7. Ferrari’s advertisement over the television says that the newest model of Ferrari can accelerate from
rest to 89.76 km per hour in just only 3.21 seconds. Find the average acceleration.
8. What is the initial velocity of a car if it is decelerating at 10.63𝑚/𝑠2 and has a final velocity of
4.65𝑚/s? Assume that the time interval for the whole duration of the car activity is 1.21 minutes.
9. In order to catch suspected drug lords, Karla drives his car with an acceleration of 3.21𝑚/𝑠2.
Assuming that from rest, the car has a velocity of 6.67𝑚/𝑠. How long will Karla takes the drive?
10. How much time needed to stop a car travelling north with an acceleration of 15.43𝑚 𝑠 2 and has a
velocity of 2.43𝑚/𝑠. Assume that the car starts from rest.

Uniformly Accelerated Motion

1. The velocity of a train changes from 0 𝑚/𝑠 to 60 𝑘𝑚/ℎ𝑟 in 20 seconds. Assuming that it is uniformly
accelerated, what is the acceleration in 𝑚/𝑚2 ?
2. Starting from rest, a train is uniformly accelerated and reaches a velocity of 20 𝑘𝑚/ℎ𝑟 after 15
seconds. What is its acceleration?
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3. A car starting from rest is given a constant acceleration of 5𝑚/𝑚2.

a. In how many seconds will it attain a velocity of 100 𝑚/𝑠?
b. How far will it have travelled in this same time?
4. The brakes of an automobile are suddenly applied at the instant when its velocity is 20𝑚/𝑠. If the
automobile comes to a stop after 5 second, what is its acceleration?
5. An electron which is moving with a velocity of 10, 000 𝑚/𝑠 is accelerated at 8.0 * 104 𝑚/𝑠2 by an
electric field. What is the velocity acquired by the electron after it has travelled 1 cm?

Areas Under the Velocity-Time Curve and Acceleration

For velocity versus time graphs, the area bound by the line and the axes represents the displacement.
The diagram below shows three different velocity-time graphs; the shaded regions between the line and
the time-axis represent the displacement during the stated time interval.
A. RECTANGLE

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B. TRIANGLE

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C. TRAPEZOID

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a. What is the displacement covered from 0s to 1s?

b. What is the displacement covered from 0s to 2s?
c. What is the displacement covered from 8s to 9s?
d. What is the displacement covered from 10s to 11s?
e. What is the displacement covered from 10s to 12s?

a. What is the displacement covered by the player between time 0s to 2s?

b. What is the displacement covered by the player between time 7s to 10s?
c. What is the displacement covered by the player between time 12s to 13s?
d. What is the displacement covered by the player between time 12s to 14s?
e. What is the displacement covered by the player between time 8s to 10s?

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a. What is the displacement covered by Cart B from time 0s to 20s?

b. What is the displacement covered by Cart D from time 0s to 10s?
c. What is the displacement covered by Cart D from time 10s to 20s?
d. What is the displacement covered by Cart C from time 0s to 20s?
e. Which of the four carts covered a greater distance during the whole duration of the trip?

Activity 2: TRAPEZOID METHOD

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a. What is the displacement covered by the car toy from time 3s to 5s?
b. What is the displacement covered by the car toy from time 5s to 7s?
c. What is the displacement covered by the car toy from time 20s to 23s?
d. What is the displacement covered by the car toy from time 0s to 5s?
e. What is the displacement covered by the car toy from time 20s to 24s?

ACTIVITY: BRAIN CELL EXERCISE

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Directions: Compute for the displacement of the graph below combining the three methods. Show your
complete solution.
1. The graph below shows the motion graph of a turtle. What is the total displacement covered by the
turtle from time 0s to 21s?

2. Supposed you are shopping at Robinson’s Tuguegarao and you recorded the velocity of your
shopping cart. The data is given by

a. Make a Velocity vs Time Graph

b. Determine the total displacement covered by the shopping cart

SLOPES OF POSITION VS TIME AND VELOCITY VS TIME GRAPH

Consider a car travelling at a straight high way. We can describe the motion of the car by treating it as a
particle and confining the one dimension motion to the x-axis. The positions of the car, with recorded
covered distance and arrival time are given on a number line below.

The average velocity is calculated as the ratio between the displacement and the time interval during the
displacement. The mathematical expression for the average velocity is given by
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For example, what is the average velocity of the car from position 1 to position 2?

How about the average velocity of the car from position 2 to 5?

It should be noted that the average velocity between the positions vary. The displacement along the x-
axis can be graphed as

The average velocity from a coordinate x1 to x2 is known as the slope between these positions.
Mathematically, the derivative of x with respect to t is given by

The graph of the velocities from the position-time graph is given by

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GENERAL ASSUMPTIONS FOR DISPLACEMENT - TIME GRAPH

1. If the displacement has a straight line, velocity is constant.

2. If displacement is increasing, the velocity is positive.
3. If the displacement is decreasing, the velocity is negative.
4. If the displacement is constant, the velocity is equal to zero.
5. Velocity is the slope of a displacement-time graph.

GENERAL ASSUMPTIONS FOR VELOCITY - TIME GRAPH

1. If the velocity is increasing, the acceleration is positive.

2. If the velocity is decreasing, acceleration is negative.
3. If velocity is constant, the acceleration is equal to zero.
4. Instantaneous acceleration is the slope of a velocity-time graph

Examples:
1. Consider the graph below. What is the slope of the graph? Construct a velocity-time graph and acceleration-
time graph. Interpret each graph

The displacement is increasing, so the velocity is positive

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The slope of the displacement-time graph is the velocity which is equal to 5𝑚/𝑠 .

The slope of a velocity-time graph is the acceleration. The slope of a horizontal line is always zero. The
acceleration therefore is zero.

2. Consider the graph below. What is the slope of the graph? Construct a velocity-time graph and
acceleration-time graph. Interpret each graph

The displacement has a straight line and is constant so the velocity is zero.

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The velocity is zero. The slope is represented by a horizontal line and is equal to zero because the slope
of a horizontal line is always zero.

The slope of a velocity-time graph is acceleration. The slope of a horizontal line is always zero. The
acceleration therefore is zero.

Activity 1: INTERPRETING GRAPHS

Directions: Interpret the following graphs.
1. Consider the graph below. What is the slope of the graph? Interpret the slope of the graph.

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2. Consider the graph below. What is the slope of the graph? Interpret the slope of the graph.

3. Consider the graph below. What is the slope of the graph? Interpret the slope of the graph.

4. Consider the graph below. What is the slope of the graph? Interpret the slope of the graph.

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Activity 2: PROBLEM SOLVING

Directions: Solve the following problems
1. The x-coordinates of an object at time t = 1.00 s and t = 4.00 s are 3.00 m and 5.00 m respectively.
Calculate the average velocity of the object on the time interval t = 1.00 s to 4.00 s. Construct and
interpret the position-time graph, velocity-time graph and acceleration-time graph.

2. Suppose that the velocity of an object at time t seconds is 3t2 – √𝑡 + 3 +2𝑚/𝑠. At t = 0, the position
of the object is 7m. What is the position of theobject 8 seconds later?

3. A particle moves in a straight line with its position given by the following equation: x(t) = t4 – 4t3 +
2t2 + 3t + 6.
a. Find its position after 1 second.
b. Find its velocity after 2 seconds.

4. Calculation of the instantaneous velocity at a specific time, given x as a function of time: The position
of an object is x(t) = 1.00 + 2.00 t - 3.00t2, where x is in meters and t is in seconds. Calculate the
instantaneous velocity of the object at time t =3.00 s.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to
Him, and He will make your paths straight.
-proverbs 3:5-6

Prepared by:
Engr. Monico C. Veloso, ME

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