Force and Motion Standards• S8P3 Students will investigate the

relationship between force, mass, and the motion of objects.

• a. Determine the relationship between velocity and acceleration.

• b. Demonstrate the effect of balanced and unbalanced forces on an object in terms of gravity, inertia, and friction.

• S8P3 Students will investigate the relationship between force, mass, and the motion of objects.

• a. Determine the relationship between velocity and acceleration. Additional vocabulary: reference point, meter, speed, average speed, instantaneous speed, slope, distance, displacement

• b. Demonstrate the effect of balanced and unbalanced forces on an object in terms of gravity, inertia, and friction. Additional vocabulary: newton, net force, mass, weight

Force and Motion Standards• S8P5 Students will recognize

characteristics of gravity, electricity, and magnetism as major kinds of forces acting in nature.

• a. Recognize that every object exerts gravitational force on every other object and that the force exerted depends on how much mass the objects have and how far apart they are.

What do we need to know and be able to do?

• How would you describe how fast an object is moving?

Supporting Questions:• How is it possible to be accelerating

and traveling at a constant speed? • Why is it more important to know a

tornado’s velocity than its speed?

Essential Question:

Speed, Velocity, and Acceleration

Goals:

• To investigate what is needed to describe motion completely.

• To compare and contrast speed and velocity.

• To learn about acceleration.

To describe motion accurately and completely, a frame of reference is needed.

An object is in motion if it changes position relative to a reference point.

• Objects that we call stationary—such as a tree, a sign, or a building—make good reference points.

The passenger can use a tree as a reference point to decide if the train is moving. A tree makes a good reference point because it is stationary from the passenger’s point of view.

Describing Motion Whether or not an

object is in motion depends on the reference point you choose.

Distance

When an object moves, it goes from point A to point B – that is the DISTANCE it traveled. (SI unit is the meter)

Distance is how much ground an object has covered during its motion.

AB

DisplacementKnowing how far something moves is not sufficient.

You must also know in what direction the object moved.

Displacement is how

far our of place the

object is; it is the object’s overall change in

position.

SpeedCalculating Speed: If you know the distance

an object travels in a certain amount of time, you can calculate the speed of the object.

Speed = Distance/time Average speed = Total distance/Total time

What is instantaneous speed?

Instantaneous speed is the velocity of an object at a certain time.

Because velocity depends on direction as well as speed, the velocity of an object can change even if the speed of the object remains constant.

Velocity 2.12.1

Describing MotionDescribing Motion

The speed of this car might be constant, but its velocity is not constant because the direction of motion is always changing.

Velocity

Velocity is a description of an object’s speed and direction.

As the sailboat’s direction changes, its velocity also changes, even if its speed stays the same. If the sailboat slows down at the same time that it changes direction, how will its velocity be changed?

Speed v. Velocity1. How are speed and velocity similar?They both measure how fast something is

moving

2. How are speed and velocity different?Velocity includes the direction of motion

and speed does not (the car is moving 5mph East)

3. Is velocity more like distance or displacement? Why?

Displacement, because it includes direction.

Graphing Speed

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Speed increasing

Object is stopped

Object begins moving at a different speed

The steepness of a line on a graph is called slope.

• The steeper the slope is, the greater the speed.

• A constant slope represents motion at constant speed.

Using the points shown, the rise is 400 meters and the run is 2 minutes. To find the slope, you divide 400 meters by 2 minutes. The slope is 200 meters per minute.

Formula for Calculating Speed

Speed = Distance time

Problem Solving: Calculating Speed

What is the speed of a sailboat that is traveling 120 meters in 60 seconds?

Step 1: Decide what the problem is asking? A boat traveled 120 meters in 60 seconds. What was the speed of the boat?

Step 2: What is the formula to calculate speed? Speed = Distance/Time

Step 3: Solve the problem using the formula:

Speed = 120 meters 60 seconds = 2 m/sSo, the boat was traveling at 2 m/s

Now you try:What is the speed of a car that is traveling 150 miles in 3 hours?

Answer:

Step 1: What are the facts in the problem?

A car is traveling 150 miles in 3 hours.

Step 2: What is the formula to solve the problem? Speed = Distance/Time

Step 3: Solve the problem.

Speed = 150 miles 3 hours

Speed = 50 miles/hr.

So, the car is traveling 50 miles/hr.

Acceleration

Acceleration is the rate at which velocity changes.

Acceleration can result from a change in speed (increase or decrease), a change in direction (back, forth, up, down left, right), or changes in both.

• The pitcher throws. The ball speeds toward the batter. Off the bat it goes. It’s going, going, gone! A home run!

• Before landing, the ball went through several changes in motion. It sped up in the pitcher’s hand, and lost speed as it traveled toward the batter. The ball stopped when it hit the bat, changed direction, sped up again, and eventually slowed down. Most examples of motion involve similar changes. In fact, rarely does any object’s motion stay the same for very long.

1. As the ball falls from the girl’s hand, how does its speed change?

Understanding Acceleration

2. What happens to the speed of the ball as it rises from the ground back to her hand?

3. At what point does the ball have zero velocity? When it stops and has no direction.

4. How does the velocity of the ball change when it bounces on the floor?

You can feel acceleration!

If you’re moving at 500mph east without turbulence, there is no acceleration.

But if the plane hits an air pocket and drops 500 feet in 2 seconds, there is a large change in acceleration and you will feel that!

It does not matter whether you speed up or slow down; it is still considered a

change in acceleration.

In science, acceleration refers to increasing speed, decreasing speed, or changing direction.

• A car that begins to move from a stopped position or speeds up to pass another car is accelerating.

• A car decelerates when it stops at a red light. A water skier decelerates when the boat stops pulling.

• A softball accelerates when it changes direction as it is hit.

Calculating Acceleration

Acceleration = Change in velocity

Total timeSo…Acceleration = (Final speed – Initial speed)

Time

As a roller-coaster car starts down a slope, its speed is 4 m/s. But 3 seconds later, at

the bottom, its speed is 22 m/s. What is its average acceleration?

Calculating Acceleration

What information have you been given?

Initial speed = 4 m/sFinal Speed = 22 m/sTime = 3 s

What quantity are you trying to calculate?The average acceleration of the roller-coaster car.

What formula contains the given quantities and the unknown quantity?

Acceleration = (Final speed – Initial speed)/TimePerform the calculation.

Acceleration = (22 m/s – 4 m/s)/3 s = 18 m/s/3 sAcceleration = 6 m/s2

The roller-coaster car’s average acceleration is 6 m/s2.

Calculating Acceleration

Graphing acceleration

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Object accele-rates

Object moves at constant speed

Object decelerates

Now You Try:A roller coasters velocity at the top of the hill is 10 m/s. Two seconds later it reaches the bottom of the hill with a velocity of 26 m/s. What is the acceleration of the coaster?

The slanted, straight line on this speed-versus-time graph tells you that the cyclist is accelerating at a constant rate. The slope of a

speed-versus-time graph tells you the object’s acceleration. Predicting How would the slope of the graph change if the cyclist

were accelerating at a greater rate? At a lesser rate?

Since the slope is increasing, you can conclude that the speed is also increasing. You are accelerating.

Distance-Versus-Time Graph The curved line on this distance-versus-time graph tells you that the cyclist is accelerating.

Acceleration Problems A roller coaster is moving at 25 m/s at the bottom of a hill. Three seconds later it reaches the top of the hill moving at 10 m/s. What was the acceleration of the coaster?Initial Speed = 25 m/s

Final Speed = 10 m/s

Time = 3 seconds

Remember (final speed – initial speed) ÷ time is acceleration.

(10 m/s – 25 m/s) ÷ 3 s = -15 m/s ÷ 3 s = -5 m/s2

This roller coaster is decelerating.

A car’s velocity changes from 0 m/s to 30 m/s in 10 seconds. Calculate acceleration.

Final speed = 30 m/s

Initial speed = 0 m/s

Time = 10 sRemember (final speed – initial speed) ÷ time is acceleration.

(30 m/s – 0 m/s) ÷ 10 s = 30 m/s ÷ 10 s = 3 m/s2

A satellite’s original velocity is 10,000 m/s. After 60 seconds it s going 5,000 m/s. What is the acceleration?Remember (final speed – initial speed) ÷ time is acceleration.

Final speed (velocity) = 5000 m/s

Initial speed (velocity) = 10,000 m/s

Time = 60 seconds

(5000 m/s – 10,000 m/s) ÷ 60 s = -5000 m/s ÷ 60 s

= -83.33 m/s2

**This satellite is decelerating.

• If a speeding train hits the brakes and it takes the train 39 seconds to go from 54.8 m/s to 12 m/s what is the acceleration?

Remember (final speed – initial speed) ÷ time is acceleration.

Final speed= 12 m/s

Initial speed= 54.8 m/s

Time = 39 s

12 m/s – 54.8 m/s ÷ 39 s = -42.8 m/s ÷ 39 s

= -1.097 m/s2

This train is decelerating.