Movement & Position Flashcards

Flashcards on Motion & Position for Edexcel IGCSE Physics

Distance-Time Graph

A graph showing how the distance of an object moving in a straight line varies over time.

Constant Speed

On a distance-time graph, a straight line represents this.

Slope of a Straight Line

On a distance-time graph, the magnitude of this indicates the speed.

Changing Speed

On a distance-time graph, a curve represents this.

speed = gradient = ∆y / ∆x

The formula for calculating speed from a distance-time graph.

Speed

The distance an object travels every second; a scalar quantity with magnitude but no direction.

Average Speed Formula

distance moved / time taken

Paper cone / tennis ball

Equipment to measure speed in core Practical: Investigating Motion.

Independent variable = Distance, d Dependent variable = Time, t

In the Core Practical: Investigating Motion, these are the independent, dependent, and control variables.

Acceleration

Rate of change in velocity.

a = ∆v / t

The formula to calculate the average acceleration of an object.

Change in Velocity

Final velocity - Initial velocity

Deceleration

A negative acceleration.

Velocity-Time Graph

A graph showing how the velocity of a moving object changes with time.

Straight Line

On a velocity-time graph, this represents constant acceleration or deceleration.

Slope of the Line

On a velocity-time graph, this represents the magnitude of acceleration.

The object is moving with a constant velocity

On a velocity-time graph, what does a flat line mean?

acceleration = gradient = ∆y / ∆x

Formula for how to find acceleration on a velocity-time graph

Displacement (or distance travelled)

The area under a velocity-time graph represents this.

Uniform Acceleration

Condition when acceleration is constant

v² = u² + 2as

The equation that applies to objects moving with uniform acceleration.