PhysicsCode 9702
Equations of motion
What this topic asks you to be able to do
- define distance, displacement, speed, velocity and acceleration, and use them
- use graphs as a way of representing each of distance, displacement, speed, velocity and acceleration
- work out displacement by finding the area beneath a velocity–time graph
- find velocity from a displacement–time graph by measuring its gradient
- find acceleration from a velocity–time graph by measuring its gradient
- derive, starting from how velocity and acceleration are defined, the equations for straight-line motion with uniform acceleration
- solve problems with the equations for straight-line motion at uniform acceleration, including bodies falling without air resistance in a uniform gravitational field
- describe an experiment in which a falling object is used to find the acceleration of free fall
- describe and explain the motion of an object that has uniform velocity in one direction and, at the same time, uniform acceleration in the perpendicular direction