Mechanics, science concerned with the motion of bodies under the action of

forces, including the special case in which a body remains at rest. Of first concern in
the problem of motion are the forces that bodies exert on one another. This leads to
the study of such topics as gravitation, electricity, and magnetism, according to the
nature of the forces involved. Given the forces, one can seek the manner in which
bodies move under the action of forces; this is the subject matter of mechanics
proper.
Kinematics, branch of physics and a subdivision of classical mechanics concerned
with the geometrically possible motion of a body or system of bodies without
consideration of the forces involved (i.e., causes and effects of the motions).
A brief treatment of kinematics follows. For full treatment, see mechanics.
Kinematics aims to provide a description of the spatial position of bodies or systems
of material particles, the rate at which the particles are moving (velocity), and the
rate at which their velocity is changing (acceleration). When the causative forces
are disregarded, motion descriptions are possible only for particles having
constrained motioni.e., moving on determinate paths. In unconstrained, or free,
motion, the forces determine the shape of the path.
For a particle moving on a straight path, a list of positions and corresponding times
would constitute a suitable scheme for describing the motion of the particle. A
continuous description would require a mathematical formula expressing position in
terms of time.
When a particle moves on a curved path, a description of its position becomes more
complicated and requires two or three dimensions. In such cases continuous
descriptions in the form of a single graph or mathematical formula are not feasible.
The position of a particle moving on a circle, for example, can be described by a
rotating radius of the circle, like the spoke of a wheel with one end fixed at the
centre of the circle and the other end attached to the particle. The rotating radius is
known as a position vector for the particle, and, if the angle between it and a fixed
radius is known as a function of time, the magnitude of the velocity
and acceleration of the particle can be calculated. Velocity and acceleration,
however, have direction as well as magnitude; velocity is always tangent to the
path, while acceleration has two components, one tangent to the path and the other
perpendicular to the tangent.

In physics and engineering, kinetics is a term for the branch of classical

mechanics that is concerned with the relationship between the motion of bodies and
its causes, namely forces and torques.[1][2][3] Since the mid-20th century, the term
"dynamics" (or "analytical dynamics") has largely superseded "kinetics" in physics
text books;[4] the term "kinetics" is still used in engineering.
In mechanics, the Kinetics is deduced from Kinematics by the introduction of the
concept of mass.
In plasma physics, kinetics refers to the study of continua in velocity space. This is
usually in the context of non-thermal (non-Maxwellian) velocity distributions, or
processes that perturb thermal distributions. These plasmas cannot be adequately
described with fluid equations. Such plasmas are termed kinetic plasmas.

Linear motion, also called uniform motion or rectilinear motion, motion in

one spatial dimension.
According to Newtons first law (also known as the principle of inertia), a body with
no net force acting on it will either remain at rest or continue to move with uniform
speed in a straight line, according to its initial condition of motion. In fact, in
classical Newtonian mechanics, there is no important distinction between rest and
uniform motion in a straight line; they may be regarded as the same state of motion
seen by different observers, one moving at the same velocity as the particle, the
other moving at constant velocity with respect to the particle.
A body in motion may be said to have momentum equal to the product of its mass
and its velocity. It also has a kind of energy that is entirely due to its motion, called
kinetic energy. The kinetic energy of a body of mass m in motion with velocity v is
given by K = (1/2)mv2.