Distance vs displacement

Distance travelled by an object is the length of path taken.

SI unit is meter (m)

Scalar quantity

Can never be negative and distance travelled will never decrease

Displacement is the shortest distance from the initial to the final position of an object.

SI unit is meter (m)

Vector quantity

Can be negative

If you have problems grasping the difference in concept of displacement and distance
travelled, please study the example below.

Consider the diagram above:

Difference between distance and displacement: If an object started travelling from B
to C and ends at D, distance travelled is BC + CD. Displacement is BD.

Displacement can be ZERO: If the object started travelling from B to C to D

and ends at B, distance travelled is BC + CD + DB. Displacement is ZERO. (The
object ends at the same place it started)
Displacement can be NEGATIVE: If the object travels from B to A, the displacement
is negative. By CONVENTION, the direction towards the right and top are positive. A
way to remember: Go right = positive, go left = negative.

Another example to ensure that you understand the difference between

displacement and distance:
Ali walked 1 km to the North, then 1 km to the East and followed by 1 km to the
South. What is the distance covered by Ali? What is his final displacement?
Answer:
Distance: 1+1+1=3km
Displacement: 1 km east of starting point.

Speed vs Velocity
Speed is the distance moved per unit time.

SI unit is meter per second (ms1)

Scalar quantity

Equation: Speed=d/t, where d is distance travelled and t is time taken

Average speed can be calculated using total distance travelled total time taken

Instantaneous speed is the speed at any instant

Velocity (v) of an object is the rate of change of displacement with respect to time.

SI unit is meter per second (ms1)

Vector quantity

The magnitude of velocity is speed

v=d/t, where d is displacement and t is time taken

As velocity is a vector quantity, you have to specify its magnitude and direction to
completely describe it.

Acceleration
Acceleration of an object is the rate of change of velocity with respect to time.

SI unit is meter per second square or meter per second per second ( ms2)

Vector quantity

a= (vu)/t, where v is final velocity, u is initial velocity and t is time taken.

If the velocity of an object increases, the object is undergoing acceleration.

Hence, if the velocity of an object decreases, it is undergoing deceleration.

If the velocity of the object is constant, the acceleration is zero.

An object is said to be undergoing uniform acceleration when there is a

constant change in velocity per unit time.

Gravitational acceleration, g
Neglecting air resistance, ALL objects experiences the same gravitational acceleration
of 10 ms2 towards the center of the Earth (commonly referred to as downwards in
questions).

Note: Constant acceleration of 10ms2

The above means that the speed of a downward-falling object (neglecting air
resistance and other forces that is not gravity) will experience
an increase of 10m s1 every second.

It also means that the speed of an object travelling upwards (neglect the same
forces as above) will experience a decrease of 10m s1 every second.

In general, the faster the object travel, the greater the air resistance.

When an object falls (without neglecting air resistance), it experiences

acceleration and an increase in velocity. This will cause air resistance acting on
the object to increase as well. There will be a point where the air resistance is
large enough to balance the gravitational force. This will cause the resultant
force to be 0, and there will be 0 acceleration. The object will reach constant
velocity, which is termed as terminal velocity.

The magnitude of gravitational acceleration of the Earth is determined by the mass of

the Earth, and not by the mass of the object. This means that a feather and a bowling
ball will fall at the SAME rate if you neglect air resistance.

Check out the video below: (Skip to 1.25 min mark for the with air resistance part
and 2.50 min mark for the absence of air resistance (vacuum) part.)

Reading kinematics graphs

Distance-Time Graphs

For a distance-time graph, the distance never decreases.

When the object is stationary, the distance-time graph will be horizontal.

The gradient of a distance-time graph is the instantaneous speed of the object.

For straight line with positive gradient, it means that the object is travelling at
uniform speed

There is no straight line with negative gradient (as the distance never decreases)

For curves, it means that the object is travelling at non-uniform speed

Displacement-time graphs

The details are similar as distance-time graphs, except that the distance is now
displacement, and speed is now velocity.

One minor difference: There is a straight line with negative gradient, it means
that the object is travelling at uniform velocity in the opposite direction.

Velocity-time graphs

When the object is stationary, it is a straight horizontal line at 0.

When the object is undergoing uniform motion, it is a straight horizontal line

at v ms1, where v is the velocity of the object.

For straight line with positive gradient, it means that the object is accelerating.

For straight line with negative gradient, it means that the object is decelerating.

For curves, it means that the acceleration of the object is changing.

The area under the graph is the change in displacement of the object

Acceleration-time graphs

Area under graph is the change in velocity

The figure below shows the displacement-time graph, velocity-time graph and
acceleration-time graph for the respective state of motion. It serves as a summary of
the text above.