Motion Simulation: The Moving Man

Through a web browser, navigate to

https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/legacy/moving-man

You may need to install Java to run this. Go ahead.

Object of the simulation

To explore position and velocity graphs of an object moving in different
ways.

Familiarization
There are two tabs for this simulation, called "Introduction" and "Charts." For today's activity, you will
need only the "Introduction" tab.

Play with the controls of the simulation to get used to the controls. Can you find...

two ways to move the man around?

how to make the man move automatically?
how to record and playback the man's motion?
how to playback the man's motion in slow motion?
how to quickly reset the man to starting conditions?

Constant Velocity
1. Reset all of the man's values to zero.

2. Using the position slider, set the man to stand near the tree. Give him a velocity of 1.2 m/s (and
an acceleration of 0).

3. Click to start the man in motion until he hits the wall, then hit to stop recording.

4. Use the playback feature to answer these questions.

a. What happened to the blue position slider as the man moved across the screen?
The blue position slider went up constantly at a speed of 1.2m/s

b. What happened to the red velocity slider as the man moved across the screen?
The red velocity slider stayed the same
 5. Use the playback feature to record the man's position and velocity data.

Time (s) Position (m) Velocity (m/s)

0 -8 1.2
1 -6.8 1.2
2 -5.6 1.2
3 -4.4 1.2
4 -3.2 1.2
5 -2 1.2
6 -0.8 1.2
7 0.4 1.2
8 1.6 1.2
9 2.8 1.2
10 4 1.2

6. Plot your data in MS Excel in the format below:

The position that the man is standing in over time

6
4
4
2.8
1.6
2
0.4
0 -0.8
Position (meters)

0 2 4 6 8 10 12
-2
-2
-3.2
-4.4
-4
-5.6
-6 -6.8
-8
-8

-10
Time (seconds)
 Velocity (m/s)
1.4

1.2

1
Velocity (m/s)

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Time (seconds)

7. According to your graphs...

a. What shape is your position graph?
The shape of the line in the first graph is a straight diagonal line and shows a positive
correlation between the time and the position of the man.
b. What is the slope of your position graph?
The slope of the graph is 1.2
c. Explain what your answer to question b. means.
The answer to question b is the velocity that the man was travelling at. If the slope is
higher the velocity will also be higher.
d. What shape is your velocity graph? Is it horizontal, vertical, or diagonal?
The shape of the velocity graph line is a straight horizontal line.
e. Explain what your answer to question d. means.
My answer to question d means that there is no correlation between the time and the
velocity of the man. This shows that the speed that the man is going on did not
accelerate or decelerate at all. It stayed constant throughout his whole walk.

Constant Acceleration
1. Reset all of the man's values to zero.
2. Using the position slider, set the man to stand near the tree. Give him a velocity of 0 m/s and an
acceleration of 0.5 m/s2.
3. Click to start the man in motion until he hits the wall, then hit to stop recording.
4. Use the playback feature to answer these questions.
a. What happened to the blue position slider as the man moved across the screen?
 b. What happened to the red velocity slider as the man moved across the screen?

5. Use the playback feature to record the man's position and velocity data.

Time (s) Position (m) Velocity (m/s)

0.0 -8 0
1.0 -7.75 0.5
2.0 -7 1
3.0 -5.75 1.5
4.0 -4 2
5.0 -1.75 2.5
6.0 1 3
7.0 4.25 3.5
8.0 8 4
8.5 10 4.25
8.5 10 0
9 10 0
10 10 0

6. Plot your data MS Excel in the format below:

The position that the man is standing in over time

12
10 10 10
10
8
8

6
4.25
4
Position (meters)

2 1

0
-1.75
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
-2
-4
-4
-5.75
-6 -7
-8 -7.75
-8

-10
Time (seconds)
 The average velocity of the man over time
4.5 4.25
4
4
3.5
3.5
3
3
2.5
Velocity (m/s)

2.5
2
2
1.5
1.5
1
1
0.5
0.5
0 0 0 0
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Time (seconds)

7. According to your graphs...

a. What shape is your position graph?
My graph does not have any rigid or regular shape, but instead is a concave line and
then a horizontal line.
b. Why does or doesn't your answer to a. make sense?
My answer to question a does make sense because the concave part shows that the
man was accelerating as that is what concave lines in these types of graphs show. The
horizontal part shows that the man stopped due to some reason.
c. What shape is your velocity graph?
My velocity graph is also not any regular line shape but instead a mixture of different
lines like my first graph. It starts of as a straight diagonal line, then there is a vertical line
downwards and then there is a horizontal line.
d. Explain what your answer to question c. means.
My answer to question c shows that in the beginning there was a positive correlation
between the velocity of the man and the time. This suggests that the man was
accelerating. The vertical drop shows that the man decelerated and its length down to 0
tells us that it might have been an extremely sudden halt as though he was stopped by
an unmovable object. The horizontal line shows that the man remained in that same
speed after the vertical drop. This explanation of the velocity graph also relates to the
analysis of the position graph as that too shows the exact same explanation.
e. What is the slope of your velocity graph?
The slope of the diagonal line is a 0.5. The slope of the vertical line is -4.25/0 or
undefined. The slope of the horizontal line would be 0. The reason the slopes have been
segregated into three parts is because the line is also segregated into three parts and
 thus it would not make sense to create a slope of the whole line altogether.

f. Explain what your answer to question e. means.

My answer to question e means that the man was accelerating at 0.5m/s^2. The slope
of the rest of the graph is very self-explanatory as the slope of a vertical line is always
undefinable and this case shows an extremely sudden deceleration which is undefinable
as it happened in 0 seconds and the horizontal line shows no acceleration as the speed
remains the same. It can be concluded through this that slope will be the same as the
acceleration in all velocity graphs.

Making Connections
1. What happens to the man when he is accelerating?
The man starts running faster every single second and this means that when the man is
accelerating, he is increasing his speed by exerting more and more energy.

2. What is the difference between an object with constant acceleration and an object with
constant speed?
An object with a constant speed, has the same speed throughout his whole run, but an object
with constant acceleration increases its speed at a constant rate throughout his whole run.

3. Complete the following sentences:

a. "The slope of a linear position graph tells us the velocity of the object."

b. "The slope of a linear velocity graph tells us the acceleration of the object."

c. "For an object moving at a constant speed, we would expect to see a position graph with a
diagonal shape and a velocity graph with a horizontal shape."

d. "For an object moving at a constant acceleration, we would expect to see a position graph
with a concave or convex (depending on whether its accelerating or decelerating) shape
and a velocity graph with a diagonal shape."