1.

2 Basic Kinematic Quantities and Equations

The motion of a body can be described in terms of its position, velocity, and acceleration. These
physical quantities can be understood better after watching the video clips below.
On a sheet of paper please take note of the difference between distance and displacement,
speed and velocity; and cases when a body accelerates or not.
Video Transcript
When we move from one place to another, the measure of total length we cover is called the
distance. So you have to travel to this town and the best route is straight up north. But because
of road works along the way, we have to take a detour, and the distance covered would be
something like this. Now when the road works are completed, the distance needed to be
covered would be something like this. Distance is measured in meters and denoted as a lower
case "m". The distance between these two towns is about twenty thousand meters, but
because of the detour, you had to cover a distance of fifty thousand meters. Okay, so nobody
likes big numbers, unless it’s your salary. So we should also know that a kilometer is one
thousand meters. In our example, we can say that instead of 20 kilometers, you travelled 50
kilometers. Is distance a scalar or a vector quantity? Think about it... If you say someone
travelled 20kms from this point, we can't really tell where they landed up. Maybe here, maybe
there, or maybe they just went around in circles. As it does NOT specify a direction, it is a
SCALAR quantity. That brings us to Displacement. So what is displacement? “Distance with
DIRECTION” is displacement. Distance with direction? What do we mean by that? You made
two separate trips to this town. Was the distance covered in both the cases the same? Have a
good look. It wasn’t. In each of the two cases the distance was different. The time you took for
the detour was greater than the time you could go straight across. But if you call someone to
tell them where you are, in both the cases your location is this town, which is 20kms north of
your home. The displacement in both the cases is the same. You travelled 20 kms north. North
shows the direction and because direction is specified, displacement becomes a VECTOR
QUANTITY. Look at this example where a mother asks her son to quietly stay where he is while
she takes a quick nap... so now the child runs back and forth many times and returns to the
original spot before the mum wakes up. Mum wakes up and sees the child in the same spot and
as she hasn’t observed what happened in the last few minutes, she assumes the child has not
moved. The child, being the future expert in physics, has in fact disobeyed her instruction and
covered lots of distance… but at the same time he can argue that he did follow his mum’s
instruction. Lots of distance covered but ZERO displacement! If the distance travelled is a
straight line, the displacement will be the same magnitude as the distance but with the
direction provided as well. In MOST cases in our day to day lives, the distance covered is greater
than the displacement seen. Running errands and travelling back and forth between places
cause the amount of distance to build up, though you may not end up very far from home. If
you’ve really understood the difference between distance and displacement, you should be
able to answer the next question. When a passenger travels by taxi, is he charged based on the
distance or displacement? Taxis charge passengers based on DISTANCE. If you go to the
neighboring town and return in the same taxi, the taxi meter shows you the charge for the
entire round trip. If you now try to explain to the taxi driver that you have had no resultant
change in your location, and hence you must pay nothing, it will not impress him much.
Video Transcript

We have seen previously that speed is the amount of distance covered in a given amount of
time. It’s nothing but distance covered over the time taken to cover that distance! Simply put, it
tells us how fast an object moves. Also, if we know the speed and the time taken to cover a
distance, we can easily find the distance covered. So if I tell you that I travelled at a speed of ‘50
meters per second’, for one minute, can you tell me how much distance I covered? I am sure
you have come up with the answer. I have covered a total distance of 3000 meters. But if I
covered 3000 meters from this point, am I here or here or over there? You had no clue as to
which DIRECTION I headed off. This tells us something interesting! Speed offers ONLY the
MAGNITUDE, making it what we call in physics a SCALAR quantity. It doesn’t specify the
DIRECTION. It just tells how much ground is covered in unit time, regardless of the direction
travelled. Scalar quantities have only magnitude and DO NOT specify direction. Do you
remember the difference between distance and displacement? Distance just tells us the
distance covered. But displacement is distance with direction. Say the distance between towns
A and B is 20 kilometers. So if we take a 50 kilometer route from point A to B like this, then the
distance covered is 50 kilometers and the displacement is 20 kilometers north of point A. So
speed does not tell us the direction. Is there anything that tells us the speed along with
direction? Yes, it’s velocity which can be written as lower case ‘v’! Let’s see how it differs from
speed. What if I tell you that I travelled NORTH at a speed of ‘50meters per second’ for one
minute. Would you be able to tell me where I landed up? Yes you would know I have covered a
total distance of 3000 meters and landed up at this point. Velocity is SPEED with DIRECTION of
motion. As such, Velocity is “Direction Aware”. So when you mention VELOCITY, you must keep
track of direction. Something like the Car moved SOUTH at 55 miles per hour. If you do not
mention the direction and just say the car moved at 55 miles per hour, you are not stating the
velocity anymore. What you are stating is the SPEED. What do you think is the unit of
measurement for velocity? The unit of measurement for velocity, just like speed is, ‘meters per
second’. Now you might ask why ‘meters per second’! The Cars we drive indicate speed in miles
per hour or kilometers per hour. So why is the unit for velocity meters per second? The
established SI unit of measurement for velocity is meters per second. And SI stands for
International system of units. This helps everyone in the world adhere to one common style of
measurement. Imagine the confusion created with different measures like miles and
kilometers, gallons and liters, US gallons and Imperial gallons, etc. Incidentally, speed and
velocity are both measured in ‘meters per second’. But do you remember which one is a scalar
quantity and which one is a vector quantity? Yes, speed is a scalar quantity, and the velocity is a
vector quantity as the direction is also specified. Now let me ask you an interesting question.
What is AVERAGE velocity? To make it a bit easier for you, let’s look at the example we looked
at in our first video on motion. You have to travel 20 kilometers up north. But because of the
road works, you took an alternative path which totaled 50 kilometers and you took 2 hours to
reach the destination. This was your path of travel. Let’s make two columns here, one for
‘average speed’, and another for 'average velocity'! Do you remember how we calculated
average speed? Yes, it is the total distance covered, over the total time taken. So ‘50 over 2’ will
give us ‘25 kilometers per hour’ as the average speed. Now what will be the average VELOCITY
here? The average velocity depends only on the start and end points, regardless of path taken.
Do you remember we had learned about Displacement? So the Average velocity equals
Displacement over Time. What is the displacement here? It’s 20 kilometers up north. Distance
with direction! So the average velocity will equal 20 kilometers over 2 hours, which will equal
10 kilometers per hour. That’s the concept of average velocity! So if you think you’ve really
understood this concept, here’s a question for you. You are a formula 1 race car driver. You had
a great race and finished the 300 kms race in one hour and forty minutes, at number one
position. What was your average velocity? Okay, if you didn’t get it, let me give you a hint. This
was your start point and finish line as well. They were both the same. You went around the
track several times only to eventually finish at the same point where you started. So tell me
now, what was your average velocity? First, can you tell me what your displacement is? You
started and finished at the same point. So your displacement is ZERO. Zero divided by the time
taken which is one hour forty minutes, equals zero. That puts your average velocity for the race
today at zero meters per second. If however, you are trying to calculate the speed you drove at,
that would be a different answer. Try and work it out. So now let me ask you another question.
I was also in the race and you probably didn’t notice me because I finished last. I took 3 hours
to finish. What was my average velocity? That’s correct. Zero again!

Video Transcript

When we are in a stationary car that moves rapidly to gain speed, we get pushed back against
our seat. And when brakes are applied, we get pushed ahead. Or when we take a sharp right
turn, we are pushed towards the left. These are all situations where we are Accelerating! We
have all experienced this whether in a car, or a bus, or while riding a motorbike. Simply put,
when velocity changes, we have acceleration. I still haven't defined what acceleration is. I just
told you that when velocity changes, there will be acceleration. Okay, let me give you two
examples. In the first one, a car is traveling in a straight line at a constant speed of 80
kilometers an hour. And in the second one, a plane is traveling in a straight line at a constant
speed of 1,000 kilometers an hour. In which case do you think Acceleration is involved? None!
In both cases, the velocity is not changing at all. Hence, there will be no acceleration in either of
the cases! Most people relate acceleration to high speed ! And that's clearly not true!
Acceleration will only exist when there is change in velocity. Do you remember what velocity
is ? Its speed with direction and its hence of vector quantity! Why is this important? Let's say a
body moves from rest and reaches a velocity of 20 kilometers an hour in five seconds. Will
acceleration be involved here? Yes, because the velocity is changing. It was zero initially, and at
the end of five seconds it's 20 kilometers per hour. In another scenario, assume that a body is
moving at 30 kilometers an hour, and then it moves right at 30 kilometers an hour and
continues traveling at the same speed of 30 kilometers per hour. Will there be acceleration in
this case? The answer is yes ! As the direction is changing, the velocity will also change. The only
thing constant in this example is speed. But the velocity changes as the direction changes! So
this was the most important concept you had to know about acceleration. It will exist only
when there is a change in velocity! But how is acceleration calculated? Acceleration is defined
as the rate of change of velocity. In terms of a formula, Acceleration can be written as 'change
in velocity' 'over the time taken'. If the velocity of an object changes from an initial value of U to
the final value of V, in time t, then the acceleration "a" can be written as 'V minus U' over t. Said
this object is at rest initially at point "a". It then travels to the right and attains the velocity of
'10 meters per second' in five seconds. What will be the acceleration here at point B? We can
look at the formula to get the answer! The initial velocity U is zero meters per second as the
object is stationary. The final Velocity V is 10 meters per second. And the time taken t is 5
seconds. Hence the acceleration a will equal '10 meters per second' minus 'zero meters per
second', divided by 5 seconds. So this will equal 10 meters per second divided by 5 seconds. '10
divided by 5' is 2. Wait.. hold on.. What will be the units of acceleration? We should get a hint
by looking at this. The units of acceleration will be 'meters per second' per second. Because it's
the change in velocity over the time taken! As this is meters per second, we can carry this
second to the denominator and what we will get is 'meters per second squared.' This one is
more intuitive, but this one is a bit neater I would say. So the acceleration in this case will be '2
meters per second squared'. And acceleration is also a vector quantity! Here, Acceleration and
Velocity are in the same direction! There are many more important concepts about
acceleration, which we will cover in the coming videos.

Distance refers to how long or how much

ground was covered. It is a scalar
quantity.
Distance = 4 m + 3 m = 7 m
Displacement is the distance from the
origin to the endpoint of travel with the
corresponding direction. It is a vector
quantity.
Displacement = 5 m, northeast direction.