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Kinematics
Computations involving distance, displacement, velocity, and acceleration
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Computations involving distance, displacement, velocity, and acceleration
Want a deeper conceptual understanding? Try our interactive lesson! (Plus Only)
No exercises available for this concept.
Displacement s is the change in position between start and end time, whereas distance d is the total length of the path taken.
Direction does not matter for distance, which is never negative, but displacement can be negative - usually indicating motion down or to the left.
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Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity, which is the rate of change of displacement.
Hence, the integral of acceleration is velocity, and the integral of velocity is displacement.
While we use derivatives to get instantaneous velocity and time, we can also find average velocity and time:
Change in displacement between t1​,t2​:
Speed is the magnitude of velocity:
The distance can be found from the velocity using the equation
Since speed is given by ∣v(t)∣, we see that distance is the integral of speed.