Kinematics Flashcards
Vectors
a physical quantity that has both magnitude and direction.
Eg: Position, Displacement, Velocity, Acceleration, Force, Weight, Friction, Momentum, Impulse
Force diagram, Free body diagram and Vector diagram
Force - object with all labelled forces acting on it
Free body - dot with labelled forces
Vector - diagram obtained by adding vectors “tail-to-head”
Scalars
a physical quantity that has magnitude only.
Eg: Distance, Time, Length, Speed, Mass, Power, Energy, Work
Resultant vector
the single vector which has the same effect as the original vectors acting together.
Position
position is an object’s location relative to a reference point in a frame of reference.
Distance
the length of path travelled.
Displacement
a change in position.
Speed
the rate of change of distance.
Velocity
the rate of change of position / the rate of displacement / the rate of change of displacement.
Instantaneous velocity
the displacement divided by an infinitesimal time interval
Instantaneous speed
the magnitude of instantaneous velocity.
Acceleration
the rate of change of velocity.
Gravitational acceleration
the gravitational force the Earth exerts on any object on or near its surface.
Free fall
motion (up or down) in the Earth’s gravitational field in which only the force of gravity acts on the object.
Terminal velocity
the maximum velocity reached by an object that is not in free fall.
