The motion of objects can be described by words, with images, as well as with the language of math by using graphs, charts, and equations.

We've already learned about the p-t and v-t graphs in our experiments, and now it's time to figure out the kinematic equations that will describe the motion of objects by relating the time, distance, displacement, velocity, speed, and acceleration. They're a really handy set of four equations that you can use to figure out how fast you're moving in a swing, how far your car will skid, the height your rocket will reach, or how far your baseball will go.

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13 Responses to “Describing Motion with Equations”

  1. Aurora Lipper says:

    Sure, some web browsers were having problems displaying the equations. This is fixed now.

  2. londamail says:

    In the text between the two videos, the four kinematic equations are jumbled together. Could you please separate them or add some semicolons/commas? Thank you in advance.

  3. Yes, that does! Thanks!

  4. Good morning! Not really, but you will often become so familiar with them that they actually do get memorized! Instead of memorizing, it is helpful to see where they actually come from and what they mean. For example, v = d/t is easy to see that it’s really change in displacement per unit of time. You can usually find complete derivations in a typical college or high school physics book. Does that help?

  5. Hello, I’d like to know whether or not you need to memorize these equations to do well in Physics, and if so, any others that would be helpful. In fact, do you need to memorize any equations at all? A quick response would be helpful.

  6. I am not sure what happened, I will have my assistant reach out and connect with you today.

  7. Hey, I am having difficulty with accessing the program, I used this program yesterday and had no issues but today I had complications. Is there anything I need to do differently?

  8. Yes, it’s already included with the total distance (5.2+1.2) and with the 27 minutes (which is already in the units of time so we don’t have to convert the way we did with the first term).

  9. Angela Horton says:

    On “Kinematics Part 1” at 2:33, shouldn’t the 1.2 mi he walked be included in the equation?

  10. The reason you got so many different answers is because it’s not a hard line (like a boundary) but rather a diffuse area of gases. You’ll find accurate information here: http://www.universetoday.com/54760/what-is-the-atmosphere/ Give that a try and see how this compares with the answer you calculated. (I’ll give you a hint: you’re about 2 orders of magnitude (100) off.)

  11. Robin Angaiak says:

    I’m writing a science fiction book and I wanted to know how far up the end of the atmosphere is from the earths surface. But I looked on many different web pages and couldn’t find an answer. So instead I found how long it took for a space shuttle to leave earth, and what speed it was going at and used this equation:

    If the speed of the shuttle is 58,000 km/hr and it took 8 min. I need to first convert the hours in minutes. Then I have to multiply the converted amount by 8 to find how many km it traveled in those eight minutes.
    58,000 km/hr / 60 = 966.66 x 8 = 7,733.3332 km
    I then converted the km into miles to better comprehend the distance which was 4,805.2 mi.

    My question is, did I do this correctly? And since this can only be estimated on my part and I have know idea if it is even remotely close, I was wondering if you knew the answer to how high the end of the atmosphere is from the earths surface.

  12. There are HW problem sets at the very end of each section that you can opt to work through. It’s more like a lecture-lab course you’d take at a university where the instructor (Aurora) goes over the concepts and then shows you how to apply them in real physics problems, then you go home and try it out on your own with the HW. There aren’t any assessment exams yet – most folks have opted to do the AP course as a final exam after working through the entire course.

  13. Stephanie Klipfel says:

    Hello,

    My son is currently working through the Physics course. Are there any tests/assessments throughout the course other than working through the problems with Aurora? I know there are assessments at the end of the syllabus, but I don’t remember if there are tests at the end of modules/sections.

    Thanks so much! Love, love, love the curriculum!