Lesson One – Position, distance and Displacement

Position Position is the location of an object in space and time. Position is measured from a fixed location in space called the “origin” or “zero” Positions can be measured in One, Two or Three dimensions. We will study motion in one dimension in this course.

Position-Time Graphs http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/moving-man What does a “flat line” mean? What does the slope of the line tell us?

Graph One

Graph Two

Graph Three

Graph Four

Distance = 40m

Distance Distance is the amount of space an object passes through in a period of time.

Displacement Displacement is an objects change in position over a period of time.

Displacement = 0