KinematicsKinematics

Definitions:

1. Displacement: a vector quantity that refers to how far an object is from its original position.
2. Instantaneous speed: the speed of a car over a very short period of time, found by drawing the tangent to the distancetime graph and determining its gradient.
3. Average speed: distance travelled divided by time taken.
4. Velocity: change in displacement divided by time taken.
5. Acceleration: the rate of change of velocity.

  Graphical representations of these quantities:

All these quantities can be represented on graphs (quantity against time).

1. Displacement-time graphs: velocity is gradient.
2. Velocity-time graphs: acceleration is gradient; displacement is area under graph.