The problem contains data on the various legs of Jill’s trip, so it would be useful to make a table of the physical quantities. We are given position and time in the wording of the problem so we can calculate the displacements and the elapsed time. We take east to be the positive direction. From this information we can find the total displacement and average velocity. Jill’s home is the starting point
. The following table gives Jill’s time and position in the first two columns, and the displacements are calculated in the third column.
Time
ti (min)
Position
(km)
Displacement
(km)
Solution
From the above table, the total displacement is
The magnitude of the total displacement is
.
The total distance traveled (sum of magnitudes of individual displacements) is
.
We can graph Jill’s position versus time as a useful aid to see the motion; the graph is shown in
[link] .
This graph depicts Jill’s position versus time. The average velocity is the slope of a line connecting the initial and final points.
Significance
Jill’s total displacement is −0.75 km, which means at the end of her trip she ends up
due west of her home. The average velocity means if someone was to walk due west at
km/min starting at the same time Jill left her home, they both would arrive at the final stopping point at the same time. Note that if Jill were to end her trip at her house, her total displacement would be zero, as well as her average velocity. The total distance traveled during the 58 minutes of elapsed time for her trip is 3.75 km.
Check Your Understanding A cyclist rides 3 km west and then turns around and rides 2 km east. (a) What is his displacement? (b) What is the distance traveled? (c) What is the magnitude of his displacement?
(a) The rider’s displacement is
. (The displacement is negative because we take east to be positive and west to be negative.) (b) The distance traveled is 3 km + 2 km = 5 km. (c) The magnitude of the displacement is 1 km.
Kinematics is the description of motion without considering its causes. In this chapter, it is limited to motion along a straight line, called one-dimensional motion.
Displacement is the change in position of an object. The SI unit for displacement is the meter. Displacement has direction as well as magnitude.
Distance traveled is the total length of the path traveled between two positions.
Time is measured in terms of change. The time between two position points
and
is
. Elapsed time for an event is
, where
is the final time and
is the initial time. The initial time is often taken to be zero.
Average velocity
is defined as displacement divided by elapsed time. If
and
are two position time points, the average velocity between these points is
Conceptual questions
Give an example in which there are clear distinctions among distance traveled, displacement, and magnitude of displacement. Identify each quantity in your example specifically.
You drive your car into town and return to drive past your house to a friend’s house.
Under what circumstances does distance traveled equal magnitude of displacement? What is the only case in which magnitude of displacement and displacement are exactly the same?
Bacteria move back and forth using their flagella (structures that look like little tails). Speeds of up to 50 μm/s (50 × 10
−6 m/s) have been observed. The total distance traveled by a bacterium is large for its size, whereas its displacement is small. Why is this?
If the bacteria are moving back and forth, then the displacements are canceling each other and the final displacement is small.
Consider a coordinate system in which the positive
x axis is directed upward vertically. What are the positions of a particle (a) 5.0 m directly above the origin and (b) 2.0 m below the origin?
A car is 2.0 km west of a traffic light at
t = 0 and 5.0 km east of the light at
t = 6.0 min. Assume the origin of the coordinate system is the light and the positive
x direction is eastward. (a) What are the car’s position vectors at these two times? (b) What is the car’s displacement between 0 min and 6.0 min?
The Shanghai maglev train connects Longyang Road to Pudong International Airport, a distance of 30 km. The journey takes 8 minutes on average. What is the maglev train’s average velocity?
The position of a particle moving along the
x -axis is given by
m. (a) At what time does the particle cross the origin? (b) What is the displacement of the particle between
and
A cyclist rides 8.0 km east for 20 minutes, then he turns and heads west for 8 minutes and 3.2 km. Finally, he rides east for 16 km, which takes 40 minutes. (a) What is the final displacement of the cyclist? (b) What is his average velocity?
On February 15, 2013, a superbolide meteor (brighter than the Sun) entered Earth’s atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, Russia, and exploded at an altitude of 23.5 km. Eyewitnesses could feel the intense heat from the fireball, and the blast wave from the explosion blew out windows in buildings. The blast wave took approximately 2 minutes 30 seconds to reach ground level. (a) What was the average velocity of the blast wave? b) Compare this with the speed of sound, which is 343 m/s at sea level.
a. 150.0 s,
; b. 45.7% the speed of sound at sea level
A golfer on a fairway is 70 m away from the green, which sits below the level of the fairway by 20 m. If the golfer hits the ball at an angle of 40° with an initial speed of 20 m/s, how close to the green does she come?
A mouse of mass 200 g falls 100 m down a vertical mine shaft and lands at the bottom with a speed of 8.0 m/s. During its fall, how much work is done on the mouse by air resistance
Chemistry is a branch of science that deals with the study of matter,it composition,it structure and the changes it undergoes
Adjei
please, I'm a physics student and I need help in physics
Adjanou
chemistry could also be understood like the sexual attraction/repulsion of the male and female elements. the reaction varies depending on the energy differences of each given gender. + masculine -female.
Pedro
A ball is thrown straight up.it passes a 2.0m high window 7.50 m off the ground on it path up and takes 1.30 s to go past the window.what was the ball initial velocity
2. A sled plus passenger with total mass 50 kg is pulled 20 m across the snow (0.20) at constant velocity by a force directed 25° above the horizontal. Calculate (a) the work of the applied force, (b) the work of friction, and (c) the total work.
you have been hired as an espert witness in a court case involving an automobile accident. the accident involved car A of mass 1500kg which crashed into stationary car B of mass 1100kg. the driver of car A applied his brakes 15 m before he skidded and crashed into car B. after the collision, car A s
can someone explain to me, an ignorant high school student, why the trend of the graph doesn't follow the fact that the higher frequency a sound wave is, the more power it is, hence, making me think the phons output would follow this general trend?
Nevermind i just realied that the graph is the phons output for a person with normal hearing and not just the phons output of the sound waves power, I should read the entire thing next time
Joseph
Follow up question, does anyone know where I can find a graph that accuretly depicts the actual relative "power" output of sound over its frequency instead of just humans hearing
Joseph
"Generation of electrical energy from sound energy | IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore" ***ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7150687?reload=true
A string is 3.00 m long with a mass of 5.00 g. The string is held taut with a tension of 500.00 N applied to the string. A pulse is sent down the string. How long does it take the pulse to travel the 3.00 m of the string?
