Form 4 Chapter 2 Forces and Motion

2.1 Linear Motion

1. Linear motion is motion in a straight line.
2. The study of the motion of an object without considering the forces acting on it is called
kinematics.
3. Under linear motion, we study the
a. distance and displacement
b. speed and velocity
c. Acceleration and the relationship between them.
Distance
Definition: The distance traveled by an object is the total length that is traveled by that object.
SI unit: meter (m)
Quantity: Scalar

Displacement
Definition:
Displacement of an object from a point of reference, O is the shortest distance of the object from
point O in a specific direction.
SI unit: meter (m)
Quantity: Vector

Example:

The distance of point B from the origin O is 100m.

The distance of point A from the origin O is also 100m.
The displacement of point B from the origin O is +100m.
The displacement of point A from the origin O is -100m.
The + and sign show the direction of the displacement.

Example:

Ali go to work by motorcycle everyday as shown in the diagram above.

The distance that Ali travels from his house to the factory is 200m.
The displacement of Ali from his house after arriving at the factory is 120 m.
Speed
1. Speed is defined as the rate of change in distance. It is a measure of how fast the distance
change in a movement.
2. Speed is a scalar quantity.
3. The SI unit of speed is m/s (metre per second)

Equation of Speed

Velocity
1. Velocity is defined as the rate of change in displacement. It is the measure of how fast the
displacement change of a moving object.
2. Velocity is a vector quantity.
3. The unit of velocity is m/s (metre per second)

Equation of velocity

Acceleration
1. Acceleration is defined as the rate of change of velocity. It is a measure of how fast the
velocity change.
2. Acceleration is a vector quantity.
3. The unit of acceleration is ms-2.
4. An object moving with a velocity that is decreasing is said to be
experiencing deceleration.

Equation of acceleration

Example:
A car travels from a stationary position and reach a velocity of 36 ms-1 in 8 seconds. What is the
acceleration of the car?
Answer:

Initial velocity, u = 0
Final velocity, v = 36 ms-1
Time taken, t = 8s
Acceleration, a = ?

a=

vu
t

360
8
= 4.5 ms-2

Equation of Uniform Acceleration

Most of the motion problems can be solved by the following equations. Therefore, make sure that
you memorise all of them.

How we know when to use the equation?

The 4 equations are used when the motion is uniform acceleration.

Motion with Uniform Acceleration

Example 1:
An object accelerates from stationary with the acceleration of 4 ms-2. What is the velocity of the
object after 7s?
Answer:
It's advisable to list down all the information that we have.
Initial velocity, u = 0 (Because the motion start from stationary)
Acceleration, a = 4 ms-2
Time taken, t = 7s
Final velocity, v = ?
The displacement, s, is not involved, hence we select the equation v = u + at to solve the problem.
v = u +at; v = (0) + (4) (7);
Final velocity, v = 28ms-1

Example 2
A car is moving with velocity 5ms-1 reaches a velocity of 25ms-1 in 5s. What is the acceleration of
the car?
Answer:
It's advisable to list down all the information that we have.

Initial velocity, u = 5ms-1

Final velocity, v = 25ms-1
Time taken, t = 5s
Acceleration, a = ?

Example 3
A cyclist riding at a speed of 40 ms-1 braked with uniform acceleration and stopped in 40m. How
long did he take to stop?
Answer:
Initial velocity, u = 40 ms-1
Final velocity, v = 0 (Because the cyclist stop)
Displacement, s = 40m
Time taken, t = ?

Example 4
A car is accelerated at 4 ms-2 from an initial velocity of 5 ms-1 for 10 seconds. What is the distance
travelled by the car?
Answer:
Acceleration, a = 4 ms-2
Initial velocity, u = 5
Time taken, t = 10s
Displacement, s = ?

Example 5
A car accelerates from 4 ms-1 reaches a velocity of 28 ms-1 after travelling for 64m. What is the
acceleration of the car?
Answer:
Initial velocity, u = 4 ms-1
Final velocity, v = 28 ms-1
Displacement, s = 64m
Acceleration, a = ?

Example 6
A car begins to move from rest. The velocity of the car increases at a rate of 4 ms-2. Find the
distance travelled by the car after 12 second.
Answer:
Initial velocity, u = 0 (Because the begins to move from rest)
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Acceleration, a = 4 ms-2 (Rate of increment = Acceleration)

Time taken, t = 12s
Displacement, s = ?

Example 7
A body is accelerated uniformly from rest and in the first 6.0 s of its motion it travels 30 m. Find
i.

the average speed for this period of 6 s,

ii.

the speed at the end of this period,

iii.

the acceleration.

Answer:
Initial velocity, u = 0 (Because the motion start from rest)
Time taken, t = 6.0s
Displacement, s = 30m
Final velocity, v = ?
Acceleration, a = ?

i. Average speed =

Total Distancetravelled
Total time taken

ii. the speed at the end of this period

s=

1
2

30 =

1
2

(u + v) t
(0 + v) 6

v = 10 ms-1

30 m
6s

= 5.0 ms-1

iii. the acceleration.

s = ut +
30 = 0 +

1
2

1
2

at2

a (6)2

18a = 30
a = 1.667 ms-2

Challenging Question 1:
A car starts from rest and accelerates at a constant acceleration of 3 ms-2 for 10 seconds. The car
then travels at a constant velocity for 5 seconds. The brakes are then applied and the car stops in 5
seconds. What is the total distance travelled by the car?

Challenging Question 2:
Ali starts driving his car from home with a constant acceleration and reaches a velocity of 30 m/s in
6.0 seconds. Find
a.

The acceleration of Ali's car.

b.

The displacement of Ali's car 5.0 seconds after it started moving.

c.

The displacement of Ali's car in the fifth second..

d.

Velocity of Ali's car at time t = 4.0 seconds?

e.

Velocity of Ali's car after moving 30.0 meters from the starting point.

2.1 Ticker - Timer

1. A ticker - timer consists of an electrical vibrator which vibrates 50 times per second.
2. This enables it to make 50 dots per second on a ticker-tape being pulled through it.
3. The time interval between two adjacent dots on the ticker-tape is called one tick.
4. One tick is equal to 1/50 s or 0.02 s.

Example:
Find the number of ticks and the time interval between the first dot and the last dot on each of the
ticker tapes below. The frequency of the ticker timer is equal to 50Hz.
a.
Answer: Number of ticks = 15

Time interval = 15 x 0.02s = 0.3s

b.

Answer: Number of ticks = 5

Time interval = 5 x 0.02s = 0.1s

c.

Answer: Number of ticks = 8

Time interval = 8 x 0.02s = 0.16s

The distance between dots on a ticker tape

1. The distance between two adjacent dots on a ticker-tape represents the displacement of the
object in a tick (0.02 s).
2. If the object moves quickly, the dots are far apart. If the object moves slowly, the dots are
close to each other.

Analysing Ticker Tape

Finding Velocity from Ticker Tape

Finding Velocity
Velocity of a motion can be determined by using ticker tape through the following equation:

Caution!

t is time taken from the first dot to the last dot of the distance measured.
Example:

Diagram above shows a strip of ticker tape that was pulled through a ticker tape timer that vibrated
at 50 times a second. What is the
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a. Time taken from the first dot to the last dot?

b. Velocity of the object that is represented by the ticker tape?

Answer:
a. There are 15 ticks from the first dot to the last dot, hence
Time taken = 15 0.02s = 0.3s
b. Distance travelled = 15cm
15 cm
Velocity = 0.3 s = 50

cms1

Caution!

t is time taken from the initial velocity to the final velocity.

Example:

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The ticker-tape in figure above was produced by a toy car moving up a tilted runway. If the tickertape timer produced 50 ticks per second, find the deceleration of the toy car.

Answer:
Initial velocity,
u=

3 cm
0.02 s

v=

0.5 cm
0.02 s

Final velocity,

1
=150 cms

= 25

cms

Time taken for the velocity change,

t = (6-1) ticks = 5 ticks
t = 5 0.02s = 0.1s

a=

vu
t

25150
0.1

1
= 1250 cms

Deceleration = 1250

cms1

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2.2 Analysing Motion Graph

2.2 Analysing Motion Graph

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Velocity-time Graphs

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Example :

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Displacement-time Graph

Velocity-time Graphs

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Comparison between the displacement-time graph and velocity-time graph:

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Non-uniform motion

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