PHYSICS LECTURE 5: VELOCITY Applied Physics and Chemistry
Velocity Definition: Rate of change of position Velocity = displacement/time Slope of the line on a position/time graph Note: This is a VECTOR quantity! Calculation: V = d/t
Average versus Instantaneous Average velocity: Average over entire movement Average velocity = total displacement/total time This is the slope of a position/time graph Instantaneous velocity: Velocity at one point in time during travel This is what you see on the speedometer
Examples A high speed train takes 2.00 hours to travel from Paris 454 km due south to Lyons. What is the average velocity of the train? Nora jogs several times a week and always keeps track of how much time she runs. One day she forgets to take her stopwatch with her. As she passes a particular bank, she remembers it is 4.3 km from her house. She knows from previous training that she has a constant pace of 4.0 m/s. How long has Nora been jogging when she reaches the bank?
More Examples! Light from the sun reaches Earth in an average of 8.3 minutes. The speed of light in a vacuum is 3.00 x 10 8 m/s. How far is Earth from Sol? You and a friend each drive to a location 50 km away. You travel at 90 km/h; your friend travels at 95 km/h. How long will your friend have to wait for you to arrive?