Grade 10 Physics Page 1

Part 1 - Introduction to Physics

What Is Physics?

Here’s the problem: most people (even people who have no interest in science) have a pretty clear idea of
what chemistry and biology are, but relatively few people have a good idea of what physics is. Surprisingly,
there’s actually a good reason for this: unlike chemistry and biology, physics is not very focussed. It’s not
the fault of physicists - it’s just the way that all of these sciences came to be historically.

In ancient times most people had to work really hard just to survive. Eventually, civilization became
organized enough that some people could actually dedicate a good portion of their lives to learning stuff.
People who generally think about stuff may be called “philosophers” (which comes from Greek words
meaning “lovers of wisdom”) and thinking about stuff can be called “philosophy”. Philosophers generally
made it their jobs to think about stuff, and any topic was fair game. Some of these philosophers spent much
of their time thinking about things like ethics and morality, but some of them chose to study nature instead.
These philosophers became “natural philosophers” and they studied “natural philosophy”. Here are a few
questions that would be of interest to a natural philosopher in ancient times:

• Why do some things burn, but other things don’t burn?

• How does an egg become a tadpole, which then becomes a frog?

• What exactly is lightning?

• What features do all triangles share?

As people’s knowledge about these topics grew, it became useful for some people to specialize. Rather than
addressing all of nature, some people devoted their time to the study of life, which then was given the name
“biology”. Other people devoted their time to striving for a better understanding of matter itself ... this then
became known as “chemistry”. Mathematics was similarly defined. Once these fields were given special
names, they were no longer referred to by the “generic” name of natural philosophy. As these new areas
were defined and named, the domain of what was still called “natural philosophy” became a bit smaller.

Many areas of interest never quite reached the status of being given a special name, and so were never
removed from the study of “natural philosophy”. The term “natural philosophy” was used in English for a
long time. The term had a bit of a name change at one point, and became “physical philosophy” ... which
then became contracted down to “physics”.

The significance of this history is this: biology, chemistry, and math all have quite well defined areas of
focus. In effect, physics is “the rest of nature” ... the numerous topics that don’t fit nicely into any of the
other well defined fields. As a result, physics studies a wide range of different topics, but it is a bit
challenging to give a brief description of what it actually is!

A typical textbook definition of physics goes something like this: “Physics is the study of the nature and
properties of matter and energy”. “Matter and energy” in effect means “everything that exists” and this gets
at the real point I’m trying to make: Physics quite literally can include all of science, and in fact is often
considered to be the foundation of all of science.
Page 2 Grade 10 Physics

Topics in Physics
Perhaps the easiest way to become acquainted with physics is to consider some of the topics that are
typically studied in physics. The list that follows is only a partial list of these topics, along with a brief
example for each. If you look for it, you will literally see physics at work everywhere!

• Motion - satellite TV and GPS both require that satellites be placed into very specific orbits around
the earth. Getting these satellites to the required locations and moving in just the right ways requires
a very careful analysis of the motion involved.

• Forces - in the design of objects such as bridges and buildings, the physics of forces must be applied
to ensure stability and longevity.

• Gravity - in sending probes (and perhaps one day people) to other planets such as Mars, it is
absolutely essential that we know how the strength of gravity varies along the way between these two
bodies, as well as the strength of gravity at the surface of Mars itself.

• Energy - modern society requires energy for all of its activities, from heating and lighting to
transportation and construction. As these energy needs rise, physics will be needed to meet the
demand, to get it to where it is needed, and to make efficient use of it.

• Fluids - while unpleasant to think of it this way, the human body is basically a bag of fluid. As such,
doctors and other people who need to have a mastery of the human body need to have a good
understanding of how these fluids move and are driven to move, as well as the consequences of this
motion on tissues and organs, during good and bad health.

• Heat and Temperature - in analysing current climate trends and forecasting the climate of the
future, physics is used extensively, both to determine the extent to which disaster may occur, as well
as trying to determine methods of how to prevent such a disaster.

• Waves - cell phones and other wireless communications all utilize the physics of waves to do what
they do. Thank the physics of waves the next time you send a text!

• Electricity - while toasters and light bulbs may first come to mind, the physics of electricity is also
used to extract useful information about everything from lightning to the nature of chemical bonds.

• Magnetism - although most commonly known in the form of the lowly “fridge magnet” to the
uninitiated, magnetism is at the heart of such devices as motors, speakers, electric guitars and
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

• Light - What can’t it do? People rely on the physics of light for such things as DVD and Blu-Ray
players, supermarket scanners and transmitting information over the Internet.

• Sound - from the design of headphone speakers and concert halls, to helping keep neighbourhoods
quiet from nearby traffic, applying the physics of sound helps us hear what we want to hear, and
avoid what we don’t. In the form of ultrasound, it also lets us “see” developing babies.

• Atomic and Nuclear Physics - It is ultimately physics that explains the structure of the nucleus and
the atom itself. This knowledge can be applied to help predict the properties of future materials and
develop “custom made” atoms to help diagnose and treat cancer.
Grade 10 Physics Page 3

The Relation of Physics to the other Sciences

First off, let me say that the division of science into categories is artificial. By this what I mean is that people
chose to create categories (people love categorizing things) now known as branches or disciplines within
science. Science is often thought of as being composed of three major disciplines: physics, chemistry, and
biology.

Of course, there are several other disciplines which are very much scientific, such as geology, meteorology,
astronomy, oceanography, etc. These disciplines may be regarded as being secondary disciplines. This is in
no way meant to suggest a lesser importance, but rather a recognition that these disciplines typically have a
narrower focus, which is investigated by at least in part drawing from the primary disciplines as needed.

Consider oceanography, for example. Oceanography would draw on chemistry when considering the
chemical makeup of ocean water, biology when considering the various forms of life in the oceans, and
physics when considering how the ocean waters are driven to circulate around the globe by weather, the
rotation of the earth, and the influence of the moon.

At first, you might suspect that the three primary disciplines are very well defined and that they are
independent of each other. Very often, however, artificial categorization is more complicated than it seems
at first. Much like how peanut butter is somewhat in-between solid and liquid (having to some extent
features of both), there are topics that bridge the primary sciences. “Biophysics” “Biochemistry” and
“Chemical Physics” are pretty much what they sound like. As examples, biophysics explores how the forces
provided by muscles result in motion, while chemical physics looks at how the electrical charges within a
molecule result in forces that can hold it together.

Despite this interaction, it is often sufficient to consider the three primary disciplines as being separate. This
is why there are courses in each of these areas in high school (as well as in university). Even in doing so,
however, it is important to know how these three areas relate to each other. In particular, note that it is useful
to think of physics as being at the bottom, biology at the top and chemistry in the middle (which is why it is
sometimes referred to as the “central science”). This is again not meant to suggest anything about
importance, but rather provide a clear way of understanding how they rely on each other.

Clearly all living things are made out of “substances”. It is for this reason that biology makes regular use of
chemistry. In effect, any in-depth study of life eventually takes you into the domain of chemistry. Thus
biology can be thought of as resting on top of chemistry. In a similar way, any investigation of chemistry, if
taken to a sufficient level will end up in the domain of physics. After all, atoms and molecules are just
arrangements of charge, which exert forces on each other, and governed by principles of physics such as
energy and motion. If chemistry can claim to be the “central science” then physics can claim to be the
“foundation of science”. I suppose that biology could then reasonably called the “top science” ... this way
they all sound important, which is good, because they all are important!
Page 4 Grade 10 Physics

Careers in Physics
Unfortunately, many people have no idea as to how physics is “career worthy”. Those that ever stop to think
about it frequently conclude that physics leads to only three things: engineering, teaching physics, and being
a physicist. It is true that these are possible careers, but it hardly seems fair to only count engineering and
physicist as one career each, as there are many, many different ways to be in one of these careers.

Being necessarily simplistic, physicists clearly work most directly with physics, either applying expert
knowledge of physics to a specialized field (such as medical physics, atmospheric physics, or in working in
industry or the government), or by researching physics itself in order to advance our understanding of
physics itself by doing research at universities or other research facilities such as the Perimeter Institute,
Fermilab or the LHC.

Engineers, on the other hand, typically work with established physics (though not always!) and other areas
as needed in order to work out solutions to problems of a very practical nature, such as the design of a jet
aircraft, the maintenance and expansion of the power grid, or the creation of submicroscopic machines to
help improve human health. A good knowledge of physics is also essential in many other areas such as
medicine, meteorology, astronomy, etc.

How To Do Well In Physics

Let’s be honest: physics has a reputation of being a difficult subject. I really think that this is because so
many students just flat out take the wrong approach, and end up experiencing a lot of difficulty with physics
in the process. You don’t want that now, do you? Of course not! Here is some incredibly good advice on
how to maximize your likelihood of doing well in this unit. I’ll tell you right now - there is no “magic” easy
way. Thank goodness. If there was, I wouldn’t be needed at all.

• You have to study the ideas presented until you actually understand them. It’s not enough to
memorize formulas, examples, or anything else. You have to know it well enough to explain the
principles you are learning about to somebody else who doesn’t yet know physics. If you can teach a
physics concept to a ten year old, then congratulations - you understand it. If you cannot, then you
don’t understand it.

• Try hard to “violate” the laws and/or principles you are learning about. If I say that something
is impossible, you should try to come up with an example of something that makes you think “wait -
how about in this situation ... see: you’re wrong: it IS possible!” Oh - it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll
be wrong, but if you can come up with something that seems to suggest (to you) that the physics is
wrong, then generally we’re down to one of four possibilities:

1. You have genuinely come up with a violation of an established idea in physics that nobody
has ever thought of before. Congratulations! You should notify the Nobel Committee
immediately and start shopping for something snappy to wear on your world tour of
presentations you’ll be making at universities etc.
Grade 10 Physics Page 5

2. You have found an actual problem with the idea that was presented to you due to it being
only an approximation or simplification of what is actually an established idea in physics.
Congratulations. You weren’t “supposed” to catch this nuance, but clearly you’ve really
mastered the idea. Having said this, you should also be able to appreciate why the
approximation that was presented here is generally good enough for the situation being
described, or perhaps as an “introductory” level understanding only, which can be modified
or extended later.

3. I screwed up. Congratulations - you have found either an error in my understanding of

physics, or caught an error that slipped past my reading and proofreading of my notes. You
should notify me immediately so that I can correct this for future versions of this book. You
will also have earned my gratitude and respect. Good job!

4. You flat out don’t understand the idea that was presented. Your “violation” of the idea
reveals this as you have completely missed an important idea. Congratulations! You have just
discovered a critical misunderstanding you had and can now actively take steps to learn the
idea more completely.

By the way - the above possibilities are presented in order of least to most likely.

• “Knowing” the ideas is critical - but not enough to do well in this course. You actually have to
PRACTICE BY SOLVING LOTS OF PROBLEMS, and ANSWERING LOTS OF
QUESTIONS. Being good at physics means being a ninja in the ways of Physics. You don’t become
a ninja by reading books about it. You can’t read “you have to be really, really sneaky” and say to
yourself “right - sneaky - got it! I’m now sneaky and one step closer to becoming a ninja!” NO!
You have to practice sneaking around! And it’s not enough to practice sneaking through the exact
same room over and over. When it comes to doing your ninjutsu exam (which is not yet offered by
the College Board so far as I am aware), you are going to be put into a situation you’ve never been in
before, and you will be expected to demonstrate your “sneakiness” by putting all the skill you’ve
developed while practising sneaking around in all kinds of different environments.

• Learn physics continuously throughout the unit as the topics are introduced. Don’t expect to be
able to learn all of this at the last minute before a test or exam. Just like ninjutsu (or playing the
piano), learning physics takes time. You really can’t rush it.
Page 6 Grade 10 Physics

Part 2 - Math Review

Physics makes very regular use of math. In this section we will do a quick review (and in a couple of cases
introduce) the math that we will need for our Grade 10 unit of Physics. If you choose to take Physics in
Grade 11, all of this math will continue to be very important, as well as more math that will be reviewed or
introduced when needed. We already made use of some of these ideas in our Chemistry unit, but this review
is still important as we will be using these ideas even more often in the Physics unit.

If you experience any difficulties with the math in this review it is critical that take action. You can get help
from me (your Science teacher), as well as your math teacher or the Math and/or Science Centres. The very
worst thing you can do is to not actively try to improve.

Scientific Notation
As frightening as “scientific notation” may sound, it is nothing more than a convenient shorthand. In math
(and in physics) we sometimes need to work with very large numbers (such as the distance to Saturn , which
is approximately 1,300,000,000 km) and very small numbers, such as the time that it takes light to cross a
classroom (which is approximately 0.00000003 s – assuming that the room is about 10 meters wide).

Rather than write the numbers as they appear above, we can write them in scientific notation, which has the
advantage of allowing us to not have to write all of those zeros. You have already worked with powers.
Squaring is an example of a power. 102 means ten multiplied by itself: 10 × 10. Notice that there are two
tens in this multiplication, and the answer is one hundred which also has two zeros. What would happen if
we took 103 or 104? Try it, and notice that this pattern continues: 103 = 1000 (three zeros) and 104 = 10000
(four zeros)

What if we chopped off the zeros from a large number, and replaced all of the zeros by an exponent of ten?
This may save time if there are enough zeros. In the example above, 1,300,000,000 could be thought of as
being “13 followed by 8 zeros”. Of course 13 × 10 would be 130, while 13 × 10 2 would be 1300. How
could we get the shorter version of 1,300,000,000?

One answer is 13 × 108. Proper scientific notation, however, insists that there be a decimal after the first
digit (this would be between the 1 and 3 here). But putting the decimal here to 1.3 × 10 8 won’t be the
answer, as taking 1.3 times ten for the first time simply gives us 13, while the next seven multiplications by
ten adds seven zeros - we need 8! The solution is to make it 1.3 × 10 9 in which you can think of the
exponent 9 as being the number of moves that the decimal makes to the right: the first move shifts it from
1.3 to 13, and the next 8 moves insert zeros.

Very small numbers have the opposite problem: to be written in standard notation, we must move the
decimal number the other way. Just as multiplying a number by 10 makes it larger, dividing by ten makes it
smaller. For example: 2 ÷ 10 ÷ 10 ÷ 10 = 0.002 This could be better written as 2 ÷ 10 3 = 0.002, but
scientific notation does not write it this way: it turns out that multiplying by 10 to a negative exponent is the
same as dividing by ten with a positive exponent. In other words, the scientific notation version of 0.002 is
2 × 10-3. This is best thought of as before: the power of ten tells how many times to move the decimal. If
the power is positive, then move the decimal to the right (as it a large number). If the power is negative,
move the decimal to the left (as it a small number).
Grade 10 Physics Page 7

Scientific Notation Practice

Write the following numbers in proper scientific notation:

1. Light is fast: it moves at about 1,100,000,000 km/h

2. Earth has a circumference (distance around) of about 40,100,000 m

3. The eye of an ant is about 0.0001 m wide.

4. Atoms are small! A hydrogen atom is about 0.0000000002 m wide.

Switch these from scientific notation to “normal” (actually “normal” is called “standard notation”).

5. A very large number is a trillion, which is 1 × 1012

6. If you are 16 years old, then you are about this many seconds old: 5.05 × 108

7. The thickness of a piece of paper is about 1 × 10-4 m.

8. An influenza virus is about 5 × 10-8 m wide.

Using a Calculator Properly

Knowing how to use your calculator correctly (so that you get the right answer) and efficiently (so that you
do this quickly) is very important. You need to get to know how to make the best use of some of the
commonly used features on your calculator.

Different brands of calculators sometimes work a little differently from each other, so it is important that
you figure out how to use your calculator – and then bring it to every class and test. The following
questions should be done entirely on your calculator – even if you can do some of them in your head! The
correct answer is given - your goal is to learn how to use your calculator efficiently to obtain these answers.

You should be able to determine the answers to the following questions without anything down on paper;
only press the “equals” or “enter” button once for each of these!

a) 5 + 2×3 = 11 b) 2 × 4 + 3 × 5 = 23
c) (2 + 3) × 4 = 20 d) (8 - 6) ÷ 2 = 1
e) (-5) + 9 = 4 f) =5

g) =6 h) 2 × 103 = 2000

i) (6.67 × 10-11) × (3 × 108) = 0.02001 j) 20000000 ×20000 = 4 × 10 11

k) l)
Page 8 Grade 10 Physics

Algebra
First a little math history / trivia (that you really do not need to know here): the study of algebra can be
traced back to the Babylonians in about 2000 BC. The Hindus expanded the field around the sixth century.
Muslim scholars (mostly in Baghdad) made translations of the Hindu and Greek works. One such scholar:
Mohammed ibn Musa al-Khowârizmî wrote books on algebra that had a significant impact on the western
world (it is from his name that we get the word “algorithm”). His most famous book was titled “Hisâb
al-jabr w’al muquâbalah” from which comes the very word “algebra”.

The main difference between “normal math” and algebra is that algebra uses variables (in addition to
ordinary numbers). An “ordinary” number is really nothing more than a symbol which represents some
fixed (or constant) amount. As an example, consider “2”. This “2” thing is really just a symbol which we
know to represent one precise location on the number line: the number we call “two”.

Variables are also numbers. It is essential that the consequence of this be understood: variables should
always be treated like numbers (since they are!) Unlike the constant value numbers (like 2), variables may
represent any value, and in fact may represent several different values at the same time, or even all values or
no value at all (they are very versatile!) When written as part of an equation, the value of the variable is
understood to be “all values that make the equation true”. An equation is considered to be true if the two
sides of the equal sign are in fact equal.

As an example, consider the algebraic equation 2F = 10. This equation contains two constant value numbers
(which I’ll just call “numbers” for short): the 2 and the 10, and the variable number F (which I’ll just call a
“variable” for short). Because it has variables in it, this is an algebraic equation. The variable F represents
any number which will make the equation true. This particular equation is simple enough that it has almost
certainly occurred to you that if F = 5 (and nothing else), then the equation would be true. By saying that
F = 5, we can say that “the equation has been solved: F = 5”.

Of course, algebraic equations are not always so obvious. Consider t 3 + 6t2 - 7t = 0 ... it is not very obvious
that t represents three values: -7, 0 and 1, any one of which will make this equation true (confirm this on
your own). Throughout this unit we will aim to improve your skill at “solving equations”. By the way – get
used to not using “x” for variables all the time! In physics we will regularly use different letters for different
variables, especially when the variables mean something physical. The letter “t” for example, is often used
for time in physics.

Before working with algebraic equations, it is worth noting that the appearance of an equation (algebraic or
not) may be changed while not affecting the equation itself. The general rule here is that if an equation is
true, then it will still be true if you change both sides of the equation in the same way. Said more simply,
you may safely:

Change the appearance of an equation by doing any operation

(add, subtract, multiply, divide, etc.) identically to both sides of the equation.
Grade 10 Physics Page 9

Algebra Practice
For each of the following, solve for each variable as indicated:

9. A = πr2 i) solve for r

10. a2 + b2 = c2 i) solve for a ii) solve for b iii) solve for c

11. A = a + z i) solve for a ii) solve for z

12. i) solve for B ii) solve for C

13. A = B + CD i) solve for B ii) solve for C iii) solve for D

14. A = 0.5(B+C)D i) solve for B ii) solve for C iii) solve for D

15. A = BC + DE2 i) solve for B ii) solve for C iii) solve for D iv) solve for E

16. A - Ct = Bt i) solve for A ii) solve for B iii) solve for C iv) solve for t

17. A2 = B2 + 2CD i) solve for A ii) solve for B iii) solve for C iv) solve for D

Working with Units

Try to picture something that is “six tall”. Perhaps you thought of a person that is 6 feet tall, or a greeting
card that is 6 inches tall, or an ant that is 6 millimeters tall, or perhaps you simply thought “6 what tall?” in
which case you see that “6 tall” isn’t very meaningful. Measurements are made meaningful by the use of
units. Inches, feet, centimeters and meters are all examples of units for length (or height, distance, etc. all of
which may be thought of as being forms of length). A unit is a standard size for a particular type of
measurement. Measurements are then made by comparing other things to the size of the unit.

Two common systems of units are Imperial and Metric. Imperial units include pounds, inches, feet, miles,
gallons, quarts, teaspoons, etc. Metric units include kilograms, centimeters, meters, kilometers, litres, etc.

The major advantage that metric units have over the Imperial units is that each kind of measurable quantity
(length, mass, time, etc) has only one “base unit” which can be made into larger or smaller units with
prefixes (as will be explained shortly). As an example, consider length. In the Imperial system, length is
measured by miles, yards, feet, inches and mils (to name just a few). One mile is the same as 440 yards. A
yard is the same as 3 feet. A foot is the same as 12 inches, and a mil is one thousandth of an inch. This
seems a little complicated when compared to the metric equivalent: the standard of length is the meter.
There are also kilometers which are 1000 meters, and centimeters which are each one hundredth (1/100) of a
meter, and millimeters which are each one thousandth (1/1000) of a meter.

Physics uses the International System of units or SI for short (it is abbreviated as SI from the French
“Système International”). The SI system designates one unit to be the “official” SI unit for each type of
measurement. To make this clear, consider that the gram, kilogram and milligram are all metric units, but
only the kilogram is the SI unit of mass - it is the officially chosen unit in SI.
Page 10 Grade 10 Physics

Here are a few more examples of SI units:

Measurement SI Unit symbol Imperial Equivalent Example

Length meter m 1 m = 39.8 inches 1 m is about the height of a small child
Mass kilogram kg 1 kg = 2.2 pounds the mass of a liter of milk is about 1 kg
time second s n/a There are 86400 s in a day

Note that Physics LOVES SI units - we usually insist on them. Chemistry and Biology generally do not
adhere to the SI group of units, which can be awkward for students doing more than one science class. As an
example, chemistry regularly makes use of the gram for mass. This is (usually) acceptable in chemistry, but
it is rarely acceptable in physics (well at least not high school and intro physics courses) ... we default to
kilograms for mass - no matter how much (or how little) mass we are talking about.

The insistence of physics to use SI units does lead to some slightly awkward occasions in which it doesn’t
seem like the SI unit would be the best choice. If given an object that has a mass of 0.2 grams, a Chemist
will typically be happy to report the mass as being just that: 0.2 grams. Given the same object in Physics, we
will insist that it not be referred to as 0.2 grams, but rather 0.0002 kg (or even better: 2 × 10 -4 kg). I am very
aware that this is more awkward ... but here’s why it is worth it: by ALWAYS defaulting to kg for mass,
(and more generally ONE official unit for each kind of measurement), we avoid serious complexity in the
long run.

As an example of what I mean by this, consider that both Chemistry and Physics will make use of “pressure”
(such as atmospheric pressure). To be well versed with atmospheric pressure, a Chemist needs to know that
standard atmospheric pressure can be expressed as 101.3 kilopascals OR 1.013 Bars OR 14.7 psi OR 760 tor
(perhaps even a few more would be handy to a Chemist). In physics we frown at all of these expressions and
basically say that we won’t use any of them ... as the SI unit of pressure is simply the “pascal” - we will
consistently use just one value for this air pressure: 1.013 × 10 5 Pa. In all fairness, a well versed Physicist
should be familiar with a wide range of units (not just SI units) and should also be able to convert any of
those other units into the SI unit, but again, we will only work directly with SI units.
Grade 10 Physics Page 11

Metric Prefixes
As mentioned above, the metric units can be easily made into larger or smaller units. This is done by the use
of prefixes, which are placed before the unit name. Each prefix stands for a multiple of ten, which is easily
written with scientific notation. In fact, you can think of these prefixes as being a shorthand for scientific
notation. Note that the SI units are standardized ... the official SI unit of any particular measure will either
have no prefix at all, or one (and only one). Nonetheless, we need to be able to work with values given with
any prefix, even if it is just to convert it into our preferred choice of unit.

Scientific Notation
Prefix Abbreviation Example
Equivalent
External hard drive capacity can be indicated in
tera T × 1012 or trillion
terabytes (trillions of bytes or characters)
Computer processors are often described by how
many “gigahertz” they operate at. A gigahertz is
giga G × 109 or billion
nothing more than a “billion hertz” (in which
“hertz” indicates frequency).
Digital photos are often described as having a
6
mega M × 10 or million certain count of “megapixels” ... in which this is an
indication of how many millions of pixels there are.
A kg (kilogram) of hamburger is literally a
3
kilo k × 10 or thousand thousand grams, and is the same as about 2.2
pounds
A cm (centimeter) is literally a hundredth of a
centi c × 10-2 or hundredth
meter - this page is about 21.5 cm wide
milli m × 10-3 or thousandth A “millisecond” is a thousandth of a second.
μ micrometers (sometimes contracted down to
micro × 10-6 or millionth “microns”) are often used to describe the size of
Greek letter microscopic objects.
“mu”
nanometers (nm) are so small that they are not
often used in “day to day” life. In physics,
nanometers are often used to measure things like
nano n × 10-9 or billionth
the wavelength of light. Similarly, chemists
sometimes measure tiny trace amounts of substance
in nanograms (ng)

Memorize the first 3 columns in the above table!

Page 12 Grade 10 Physics

Unit Conversions
When measurements appear in equations, it is important to recognize that the units are very much a part of
the math. Generally, you should treat units in the same way that you treat variables. As an example, to find
the volume of a box shaped object, you use the formula V = lwh where l stands for length, w stands for
width and h stands for height. If the length was 10 cm, and the width was 20 cm while the height was 30
cm, the volume would be found as V = (10 cm)(20 cm)(30 cm). The order in which you multiply is not
important, so multiplying the above might be easier thought of as (10)(20)(30)(cm)(cm)(cm) = 6000 cm 3

The fact that units can be treated like variables leads to an interesting fact: units can “cancel”, and so
disappear from a measurement. We can take advantage of this to convert from one unit to another. Here is
how it works:

A measurement can be multiplied by one without changing the size of the measurement. We can make
fractions that are equal to one by using knowledge of two units. For example: since one foot is equal to
12 inches (1 ft = 12 i), then We can use this to convert between the two.
Grade 10 Physics Page 13

Units Practice

18. Switch the following from measurements involving prefixes to measurements involving scientific
notation (without any prefixes):

a) 23 kg b) 590 Mm c) 180 ms d) 48 km

e) 63 cm f) 188 cm g) 0.3 mm h) 12 ms

19. Switch the following from measurements involving scientific notation to measurements involving
prefixes:

a) 6.8 × 103 s b) 9.3 × 10-2 g c) 3.6 × 106 m d) 8.4 × 104 m

20. Switch the following from one prefix to another:

a) 41 cm: to mm b) 101 m: to km c) 0.5 kg: to g d) 54 Ms to ks

21. Convert from one unit to another:

a. knowing that 1 i = 2.54 cm, determine the height of a 66 inch person in cm.

b. knowing that 1 meter = 3.28 feet, and that a yard is the same as three feet, determine the length (in
meters) of a 110 yard football field

c. knowing that 1 cup = 250 ml, determine how many ml make up 4 ½ cups

d. determine how many seconds are in October

e. A “light year” (ly) is the same as 9.47 × 1015 m. How far away (in meters) is a star that is 250 light
years away?

f. Suppose that the American dollar is worth $1.35 Canadian (1A = 1.35C). determine the cost in
Canadian of a T-shirt that costs $7.50 American

g. Here in Canada the price of gas is usually expressed in “Canadian dollars per liter” ... which we can
symbolize as “C/L). Suppose that while travelling in the US, you see that the price of gas is 2.25
American dollars per gallon, which we will write as 2.25 A/gal. Using the above currency exchange
and the fact that 1 gal = 3.79 L, convert 2.25 A/gal into the equivalent price in C/L.

h. Using the exchange rate above AND knowledge that an American dollar is worth 4.5 Mexican Pesos
(1A = 4.5 P), determine the cost (in Canadian) of a bottle of Vanilla that costs 20 Pesos.

i. Convert the speed limit of 90 km/h into the SI unit for speed: m/s Hint: convert this measurement
twice, being careful of how the units cancel in both cases.

j. Although it is nonsensical, consider the value 24.8 cm 2/s3 (centimeters-squared per second-cubed).
Convert this into ft2/h3 (feet-squared per hour-cubed).
Page 14 Grade 10 Physics

Problem Solving
Problem solving is very important in Physics. The following are some basic math problems. They are NOT
physics problems as we have not yet learned any physics. The purpose of these problems is to develop good
habits for physics problems.

Carefully show all work (including unit conversions when needed) using the “GUESS” steps for each
problem below.

Also - give each answer to no more than 3 significant figures. Also also - answer all questions in “SI
Units” (time in seconds, length in meters, etc.) unless a problem specifies otherwise.

Some helpful equations (not all of which may be needed here!)

• Rectangle: A = Lw (A = area, L = length, w = width)

• Rectangle: P = 2L + 2w (P = perimeter, L = length, w = width)

• Square: A = L2 (L = length)

• Square: P = 4L (P = perimeter, L = length)

• Circle: D = 2r (D = diameter, r = radius)

• Circle: C = 2πr (C = circumference, r = radius)

• Circle: A = πr2 (A = area, r = radius)

• Rectangular Solid (i.e. “Box” shape): V = Lwh (V = volume, L = length, w = width, h = height)

• Cube: V = L3 (V = volume, L = length of side)

• Sphere: A = 4 πr2 (A = surface area, r = radius)

• Sphere: V = 4πr3 / 3 (V = volume, r = radius)

Some helpful information about units (not all of which may be needed here!)

• 1 in = 2.54 cm (in = inch, cm = centimeter)

• 1 ft = 12 in (ft = foot, i = inch)

• 1 yd = 3 ft (yd = yard, ft = foot)

• 1 mi = 1.609 km (mi = mile, km = kilometer)

• 1 kg = 2.54 lb (kg = kilogram, lb = pound)

• Equation that relates temperature in degrees Celsius (TC) to temperature in degrees Fahrenheit (TF):
TF = 1.8TC + 32
Grade 10 Physics Page 15

Problem Solving Practice

22. What is the perimeter of a square that has a length of 2 m? (Remember - use all GUESS steps!)

23. A rectangle has a length of 3 m and an area of 4 m 2. What is the width of this rectangle?

24. A circle has a radius of 40 inches. What is its area? Reminder: our SI (official) unit of length is the
meter, so you should convert this radius to meters before doing anything else with it!

25. A small pizza has a radius of 20 cm. What would be the radius of a larger pizza (in cm) that has twice
the area of the small pizza? Hint: the answer is not 40 cm!

26. Earth is very nearly a sphere with a radius of 6.38 × 10 6 m. Suppose that I want to cover the entire
surface of the earth (ALL of it - even the oceans) with standard “letter sized” sheets of paper. How many
sheets of paper would be needed? Note that letter sized paper is 8.5 in x 11 in.

27. A temperature of 35 C would be a very hot day in Winnipeg. What is this same temperature in F?

28. A typical oven temperature to bake something is 350 F. What is this temperature in degrees Celsius?

29. The equation for the two temperature units was given as T F = 1.8TC + 32. As written this is great for
calculating a temperature in Fahrenheit if given it in Celsius. Treating T F and TC as variables, rearrange
the equation in order to “solve for TC”. In other words, make the same equation start with “T C = ”

30. Try out the equation you came up with in the previous question by plugging in a value of 350 for T F, and
calculate the corresponding temperature in C. Verify that you got the same answer as in #28 above.

31. On your next birthday, how old will you be? Friendly reminder: you need to answer in SI Units! Also -
this really is more of a “question” - it is not a “problem”. There is no need to use the problem solving
“GUESS” steps here. Note that for the purpose of this question, you can treat each year as if it was an
“average year” of 365.25 days in order to account for leap years.

32. For this question, let’s pretend that the earth is a perfect sphere with a radius of exactly 6.37 × 10 6 m.
We’ll also ignore real life details like mountains, valleys and bodies of water. Given this simplified
version of the earth, consider a string that goes completely around the earth’s equator, lying flat on the
ground the whole way. How much additional string is needed to add on to the original string so that the
new (longer) string would be able to go around the equator, propped up 1 m above the earth’s surface the
whole way around? Note: This question involves a very large range of numbers (i.e. 1 meter is a LOT
smaller than the earth’s radius). To do a good job of this question, do not round off any numbers at all
until your final answer. Even better: after starting your calculations, do not clear your calculator until
you have obtained your final answer. This way you will retain your full calculator’s accuracy of the
numbers involved. If you’re up for a challenge, see if you can get the exactly correct answer without
actually using a calculator at all.

33. A square and a circle have the exact same area. How many times larger is the length of the square’s side
than the circle’s radius?
Page 16 Grade 10 Physics

34. The meter as a unit was introduced by the French. Their original idea was that the size of the meter
would be based on the size of Earth. Specifically, the French intended the meter to be exactly one ten
millionth of the distance between the equator and the north pole, going through Paris. Unfortunately,
they were a bit off on determining this distance, so this distance is not 10 million meters the way it
“should” be. Assuming that Earth is the perfect sphere as previously described, what would be the
distance from the equator to the north pole? Once you have found this value, determine if the French
measurement was "too big" or "too small". For "bonus points" (not literally), use the Internet to find the
actual distance from the equator to the north pole through Paris. Due to the “precise” nature of this
question, give your answers to the nearest meter (not 3 sig figs).

35. Consider two solid wooden cube shaped blocks. One of these blocks is smaller: it is 5 cm wide, while
the other block is larger: it is 10 cm wide.

a. How many times bigger is the larger block than the smaller block? Explain your answer.

b. If I wanted to wrap a ribbon once around each of these two cubes, What length of ribbon will be
needed for each cube? (Answer in cm)

c. What is the total surface area of each of the two cubes? (Answer in cm 2)

d. If the smaller cube has a mass of 100 grams, what mass would the larger cube be?(Answer in grams)

e. Look over your answers to parts (b), (c) and (d) above. Do not go back and change your answer to (a)
but answer this question again: How many times bigger is the larger block than the smaller block?
Explain your answer.

36. Consider two solid spheres, both made out of the same material. One of these spheres is larger. It has
twice the radius of the smaller one. Note that we do not know the actual sizes of either of these spheres!

a. If I wanted to wrap a ribbon around each of these two sphere’s circumferences, How many times
longer will the larger sphere's ribbon need to be than the smaller sphere's ribbon?

b. How many times heavier will the larger sphere be than the smaller sphere?

c. Suppose that one tube of paint is needed to paint the smaller sphere. How many tubes of paint would
be needed to paint the larger sphere? Note that we do not know the size of these tubes of paint, but
all of the tubes we have contain the same amount of paint. Also - we do want to paint the larger
sphere with the "correct" amount of paint - we are not going to try to make a lesser amount "stretch"
as this would make the two paint jobs appear different. Using "too much" paint would also be
unacceptable for the same reason.

37. The paper that we use for making photocopies at the school comes in boxes. Inside each box are several
packs. Each pack contains 500 sheets of paper, which as mentioned previously is "letter sized". If you
were given a box of this paper and nothing else (no ruler for example), write up a method that would let
you come up with a very good estimate of the thickness of a single sheet of this paper. For bonus marks
(again, not literally) get your hands on paper like this and actually do it!
Grade 10 Physics Page 17

5kB 2 F
38. Consider the equation J  Let’s assume that we do not know the values of any specific
9rZ 2
variable in this equation (but we do know that none of them are equal to zero). You might think that
there is nothing we can do in such a case, but that’s not true. We can still look at the impact of each
variable within this equation. In the following situations, describe how the value of J would be impacted
if all variables on the right side of the equation remain constant, other than what is described in each
case. For example, you might say that “J would become 2 times what it was” or “J would become half as
big as it was” (or something else along these lines).

a) the value of k doubles b) the value of k triples c) the value of k quadruples

d) the value of B doubles e) the value of B triples f) the value of B quadruples

g) the value of F doubles h) the value of F triples i) the value of F quadruples

j) the value of r doubles k) the value of r triples l) the value of r quadruples

m) the value of Z doubles n) the value of Z triples o) the value of Z quadruples

p) The values of k, B and F all double q) the values of k, B, r and Z all triple

Scalars and Vectors

At first glance, this might seem intimidating (chances are that it is unfamiliar to you). Although it may be an
new word to you, you are already very familiar with scalars as they are what most people would simply
regard as “normal” numbers. In fact, it’s hard to even describe what we mean by “scalar” unless we compare
them to another kind of number: a vector.

So here’s the deal: a scalar is a number that only has one part, and that one part tells only one thing: size (or
more impressive sounding: “magnitude” which just means size). It’s kind of tricky to get past how mind-
blowingly obvious this. Think about it: what is the difference between the (scalar) numbers 1 and 1000?
Well, 1 is “small” and 1000 is “big” (at least compared to each other). That’s it. 1 is a scalar and so is 1000.
Each of these scalar numbers does only one thing: they tell us “how big” or “how much”. Again this seems
obvious (and it is), but let’s now have a look at vectors.

Unlike scalars, vectors have two parts. They too have a magnitude (size) part, and that part looks exactly like
a regular old scalar. However, they also have a direction. The direction can be revealed in many different
ways. One way is with an actual word such as “right” or “north” or “down”. This means that while “2” is a
scalar (it only has one part: magnitude), “2 to the right” is a vector (it has both magnitude and direction).

Now the overwhelming temptation here is to think of “2 to the right” as a “number” and a direction. Nope.
Don’t do that. You have to think of “2 to the right” as being a number ... a vector number. Let’s further
demonstrate the difference between the scalar “2” and the vector “2 to the right” by using a number line:

-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
Page 18 Grade 10 Physics

On a number line, scalars are indicated by very specific points. The scalar number “2” exists at only one
place, and that one place is indicated above by the small grey dot. There is nowhere else on the number line
that has that same value. In fact, every unique point on a number line is a unique scalar number.

By comparison, vectors are not points on a number line. Instead, vectors are drawn as arrows. These vector
arrows have two parts: a magnitude (length of the arrow) and a direction (as shown by the arrow head).
There are 3 arrows shown on the above number line, but here’s the neat part: each one of them represents
the vector “2 to the right” equally well. It doesn’t matter where the arrow is located. Vectors are not points
on a number line - they are arrows with length (magnitude) and direction.

SCALARS CAN BE DRAWN AS POINTS ON A NUMBER LINE; VECTORS CAN BE DRAWN AS ARROWS

Symbols for Vectors

To avoid confusion between vectors and scalars, it is often desirable to use a special notation for vectors and
scalars. Both vectors and scalars are typically symbolized as letters (though not always letters from “our”
alphabet ... Greek letters are particularly common also). However, to make the symbols for vectors look
different from the symbols for scalars, one of two things is typically done:

• Symbols for vectors can be shown in “bold” font while scalars are not bold. This is especially
common in word processed text such as this one. Here are a couple of examples:

b = 4.5 (in which b is a scalar)

π = 3.14 (in which π is a scalar)

F = 8 [north] (in which F is a vector)

g = 9.8 [down] (in which g is a vector)

Symbols for vectors can be drawn with a special “arrow symbol” placed on top of the letter. This is
especially common when writing by hand. The arrow symbol is sometimes a “normal arrow” like this: “ ”
but often an arrow with only half of the arrow head drawn like this: “ ”. Realize, however, that this drawn
arrow symbol is always pointing to the right (as shown), regardless of which way the vector itself is pointing
(the arrow is just a symbol indicating that it is a vector ... it doesn’t even try to tell you its actual direction!

Here are a couple of examples:


F = 8 [north] (in which F is a vector)

g = 9.8 [down] (in which g is a vector)

SYMBOLS FOR VECTORS ARE EITHER TYPED IN BOLD OR PRINTED WITH A SMALL ARROW ( ) ON TOP.

Depending on the situation, I’ll sometimes signify vectors by using the bolded letters, and other times I’ll
use the small arrow symbol. Both are acceptable in typing. When handwriting, only use the arrow symbol.
Grade 10 Physics Page 19

Vector Directions
Direction is an essential part of a vector. There are many different ways that the direction of a vector can be
stated, but I’m going to stick with just three basic ways. The first way to state the direction of a vector is
with a word or words. We tend to only do this for vectors that point in really nice directions. For the most
part, this means one of the following six directions: north, east, south, west, up and down. When one of
these six “nice” directions are used, we usually put them in square brackets. For example: 5 [down] or
25 [west].

When vectors point in one of the six “nice” directions, it is often much more useful to use positive and
negative to give the direction. To do this, it’s first necessary to state which direction you want to use as the
“positive” direction. For example, let’s say that there are two vectors: F 1 has a magnitude of 5 and points
north while vector F2 has a magnitude of 12 and points south. Here is how we can state these vectors in
words:

F1 = 5 [North] F2 = 12 [South]

But here is another way we can describe these same two vectors:

North is + F1 = +5 F2 = -12

And here is yet another way we could describe them:

South is + F1 = -5 F2 = +12

Resist any temptation of asking whether F1 is “really positive” or “really negative”. It is in fact “really north”
and all three of the above say exactly that. The positive and negative signs for vectors only mean something
in conjunction with the stated reference direction.

STATING AND THEN USING A REFERENCE DIRECTION (E.G. “UP IS +”) IS CRAZY IMPORTANT!

Note: This is about as much as we need to say about vectors for Grade 10. We will use this information later
in this unit. If you take Grade 11 Physics, we will greatly expand this topic as there is a lot more to vectors!
Page 20 Grade 10 Physics

Summary of the Math Review

OK - that’s it for the math review. We will be heading into actual Physics soon, but before we do, here’s a
check list of what you should be able to do based on this review:

You should be able to work with Scientific Notation, switching back and forth between it and
“normal” (standard notation) as needed.

You should know that it is preferred to use Scientific Notation for any number which, if written in
standard notation, would have 4 or more consecutive zeros.

You should be able to use your calculator to reliably get the correct numeric answer to even
somewhat complicated calculations. In particular, you should know how to use the Scientific
Notation button, the bracket buttons, and square and square root buttons.

You should be able to work with algebraic equations, especially solving for an unknown, if given the
values of all of the other variables in the equation.

You should be able to work with units and, if given some conversion information, convert a
measurement from one unit to another.

You should know what “SI Units” are all about, and which unit is considered to be the SI unit for
mass, length, and time.

You should know how to work with metric prefixes, including memorizing the given chart of them
and be able to do unit conversions with them.

You should be able to problem solve, using the GUESS steps.

You should know what vectors and scalars are, and the notation we use for vectors.
Grade 10 Physics Page 21

Part 3 - Uniform Motion

In this part of the unit we will be looking at “uniform” motion. Stop and think about the word uniform: it
quite literally means “uni” (i.e. “one”) form. When people wear uniforms, they are all dressed the same -
there is no variation (at least for the idealized uniform). The word uniform may be interpreted as meaning
“the same” or “unchanging”. Uniform motion is the simplest kind of motion: it is when the motion itself is
“uniform” or constant.

Position, Distance and Displacement

“Position” is a description of where an object is located. In casual conversation, the position of an object in
the “real world” can be described verbally. For example “it’s right behind you” is a pretty clear description
of the position of something. The position of a point on a graph can be given by coordinates, typically in the
form of (x, y). A point that has coordinates (2, 3) is positioned 2 units to the right of the origin, and 3 units
“up” (though “up” here may not be the best word to use, as we will soon discuss).

In physics, we find it useful to use a coordinate based description for objects in the real world. To make this
work, we simply imagine laying out a set of axes in the space being considered. The “origin” is then a real-
world location that we often call the “reference position”. We can then describe the x and y axes in terms of
real-world directions, such as North, East, Up, etc.

To keep things simple, let’s start with only one dimension. Motion will (for now) be restricted to move in a
straight line, so that only one axis is needed (the object will move on the axis). I can declare the reference
position to be where you are right now, with the x-axis stretching to your left and right, with your right being
the positive x axis. According to this, you are, by definition, at position x = 0. If somebody was 2 meters to
your right, he would be at position x = 2 meters, and if someone else was 3 meters to your left, she would be
at position x = -3 meters.

REAL-WORLD POSITIONS CAN BE DESCRIBED BY CHOOSING AND DESCRIBING A “REFERENCE POSITION”

(POSITION 0 BY DEFINITION) AND AN AXIS (OR AXES)

With position well described, let’s now consider an object that moves. A moving object’s position changes.
Distance and displacement both measure “how far” an object moves and yet they do NOT mean the same
thing. Distance is a measure of the length of the path taken by an object, while displacement is a measure of
how far an object has moved from where it began ... and also in which direction it moved. Note that distance
has only one part: a “magnitude” (how long the path taken is) while displacement has two parts: magnitude
(how far away it ended up) and also direction. This means that distance is a scalar while displacement is a
vector. For this reason, the symbol for distance is “d” while the symbol for displacement is “d” (notice that

the symbol for displacement is in bold, though it can also be printed as d .

At this point a lot of people make the mistake of thinking that displacement is simply the distance an object
moves ... plus the direction. This is NOT the case. Let’s have a closer look at the definitions, and apply them
to a couple of examples.

DISTANCE IS THE LENGTH OF THE PATH TAKEN BY A MOVING OBJECT . DISTANCE IS A SCALAR, SYMBOLIZED AS
“d” - THE SI UNIT FOR DISTANCE IS THE METER
Page 22 Grade 10 Physics

Consider an object that moves 4 meters north. It then stops, turns around and then moves 1 meter to the
south. This object moved a distance of 5 meters. This is because the object moved through a path 5 meters
long. It doesn’t matter that the path in this particular case had a “fold” in it. It was a 5 meter long path.

DISPLACEMENT IS A MEASURE OF HOW FAR (AND IN WHICH DIRECTION) AN OBJECT ENDED UP COMPARED TO
WHERE IT BEGAN. DISPLACEMENT IS A VECTOR, SYMBOLIZED AS “d” - THE SI UNIT FOR DISPLACEMENT IS
ALSO THE METER

By comparison, displacement completely ignores the “path taken”. It only looks at where the object began,
and where it ended (i.e. the starting and ending positions). Everything in-between is ignored. Displacement
is literally an indication of how much the position of an object changed overall. For the object just
described, it should be clear that it ended up 3 meters north of where it began; its displacement is 3 meters to
the north. This can be seen nicely with the help of a diagram:
2) Went Here
1m
3) Ended Here The movement consisted of two parts. The length of the first path taken was 4 m, and
then the length of the second path taken was 1 m. The symbol for distance is the letter
“d”. Using this we can say this: d1 = 4 m, d2 = 1 m. The total distance is simply d1 + d2:
4m
3m dtotal = d1 + d2 = 4 m + 1 m = 5 m (the length of the path taken)

Displacement ignores the path taken and simply considers how much the position
changed overall: d = 3 m [North].
1) Started Here

In other words, we can say both of these things for the object’s motion:

• It moved a distance of 5 meters

• It moved a displacement of 3 meters to the north

The cool thing is that both of these correctly address “how far” the object moved, and yet they do so in
different ways. They are both important in their own way. In some situations we might find one or the other
to be more useful. Let’s look at two examples to make this clear:

• Suppose you are considering purchasing a used car. What would be more important to you: the
distance the car has moved since it was new, or its displacement? Answer: the distance really tells
you how much “driving” the car has been subjected to, and so is a good indication of how much
“usage” it has had. In fact - the odometer (the readout on the dash that indicates how many
kilometers the car has on it) is literally a readout of the “length of the path taken” by the car. Imagine
that you are shopping for this used car at the same car dealer that sold it as a new car a few years ago.
In a way, this used car (that may have been driven for thousands of kilometers) would have a
displacement of zero (!) since in this case, the car has “ended up” at the same place it started. That’s
kind of neat, but of no real use in assessing how “used” the car actually is.

• Now consider the motion of a golf ball that has been hit from a tee: it arcs up high into the air before
falling back down to the ground. What is more important to the golfer: the distance the ball moves,
Grade 10 Physics Page 23

or the displacement that it moves? Realize that the distance would literally be the length of the path
taken by the ball. Although I’m not suggesting you could actually do it, imagine taking a very long
tape measure and using it to “trace out” the curved path that the ball actually moved through the air.
This length would be the distance the ball moved. Notice that even if the ball were to have gone
straight up (really high!) and then straight down to land right back on the tee, the distance would still
have been considerable. Again - this might all be interesting, but generally a golfer is much more
concerned about “how far away the ball ends up from where it started - and in which direction!” This
is of course the ball’s displacement, and it would be much more important than the ball’s distance in
this scenario.

Note that students often confuse distance and displacement. They are rather similar words, and
sometimes they do appear to be very similar. Consider an object that moves 4 meters north, and then moves
an additional 1 meter north. Applying the same line of reasoning as above, we would find that this object
moved a total distance of 5 m, and that it moved a displacement of 5 m [north]. In this particular case
distance and displacement seem be the same - except that displacement includes a direction. Of course, this
will only be true for objects that only ever move in exactly one direction ... which won’t always be the case.

DISTANCE AND DISPLACEMENT ARE QUITE DIFFERENT FROM EACH OTHER. DISTANCE PAYS ATTENTION TO
THE ACTUAL PATH TAKEN (ITS LENGTH) WHILE DISPLACEMENT IGNORES THE PATH TAKEN (BEING ONLY
ABOUT HOW FAR AWAY - AND IN WHICH DIRECTION - AN OBJECT ENDED UP FROM WHERE IT BEGAN).

e.g. A girl begins at the western-most point of a circular track that has a radius of 100 m. She then walks
halfway around the track. Find (a) the distance that she walked; (b) her displacement.

Let’s draw a diagram. Note that we don’t actually know which way r = 100m
the girl walked (we don’t know if she initially moved north or south)
Started Here Ended Here
but it turns out we don’t really need to know this.

(a) Distance is the “length of the path taken”. From the diagram it should be clear that the path taken is half
of the circle’s circumference. Let’s use our “GUESS” approach to guide us through solving this problem.

r = 100 m
d=?
d=½C C = 2πr
C = 2π(100 m) = 628.32 m
d = ½ C = 0.5 (628.32 m) = 314 m

By the way - a friendly reminder: notice how I have used my preferred approach to Sig Figs: I recorded the
circumference (a “partial answer”) to 5 figures, and the final answer to 3 figures.

(b) Displacement ignores the path taken and only focuses on “how far she ended up ... and in which
direction”. From the diagram it should be clear that she has ended up on the other side of the circle, which
Page 24 Grade 10 Physics

is 200 m away (the diameter of the circle). She has also ended up directly east of where she began, so the
answer to this question (with no work needed to be shown) is d = 200 m [east].

Time and Duration of Time

I’m not even going to try to talk about what time “really” is. In a way, we all “know” what time is, and yet
the more you think about it, the more you find that it is way more complicated than you might at first have
thought. Instead, we’ll just get by with a “casual” understanding of time. In the context of kinematics, we
often use time to measure “for how long” an object that we are analysing the motion of has moved.

In physics problems, we usually have a definite moment that we “start caring” about things – we can call this
the “starting time” which we typically assign to be t = 0 (imagine hitting a stop watch at that moment ... the
time indicated on the stop watch is literally the “time” and it will initially read zero). From this moment on,
the time increases (t = 1 s, t = 2 s, t = 3 s and so on). The value of time (t) is literally the value that would be
seen on the stopwatch at any moment.

The SI (and so “official”) unit of time in physics is the second, abbreviated “s” (not “sec”). The symbol for
time is “t” ... notice that this is a lower case letter. Remember: do NOT change any of the symbols we use!
Some students make the mistake of using an upper-case “T” here thinking that it’s no big deal ... but it
actually is! This is not me being picky by the way ... in Grade 11 Physics we’ll start using an upper-case “T”
for something else, so avoid future grief by getting the symbols correct right from the start.

TIME IS SYMBOLIZED WITH A LOWERCASE “t” AND HAS THE SI UNIT OF THE SECOND (s)

Nothing actually “happens” at any one moment in time ... for something to “happen” we need a duration of
time. A “duration of time” is all of the time between two moments in time: the measure of how different the
values of time were from the initial moment until the final moment. Sometimes we might be interested in
the “whole motion” of an object. For example, a ball may have been at rest on the ground. It then got kicked,
rolled for a while, and eventually stopped. In this situation (if we choose to) we can talk about the entire
amount of time that it was moving. At other times, we may only be interested in a portion of an object’s
motion. In these cases, we use “time” for the duration of the movement that want to pay attention to. The
ball just mentioned may have been rolling along for ten seconds, but maybe we are interested in only the
first one second of its motion for some reason. In this case, the “duration of time” of the motion being
considered would be only 1 second, with the remaining 9 seconds being ignored. The duration of time that
we are considering is actually the difference in the values of time seen on the clock from when we started to
care about what was happening, until when we stopped caring about it (at some later time). We symbolize
how much a value has changed with a Greek letter “delta” which is written like a small triangle:

A DURATION OF TIME IS SYMBOLIZED AS “ t” AND ALSO HAS THE SI UNIT OF THE SECOND (s) t = tlater - tearlier

Quick tip: a hand-printed letter “t” can look a lot like a “plus sign” (+). Make an effort to make your letter
t’s look distinct, at least inside of mathematical equations. I personally go out of my way (actually it’s a
habit I don’t even have to think about anymore) to have my printed letter t’s contain the little “tail” on the
bottom, just like how it appears in typing in some fonts (including this one). It might sound like a silly little
thing, but I have actually seen many students math go wrong due to a “t” for time morphing into a “+” for
addition in the middle of their work.
Grade 10 Physics Page 25

Speed and velocity

Just like how “distance” and “displacement” both address “how far” an object moves ... “speed” and
“velocity” both address “how fast” an object moves. The difference between speed and velocity is a little
trickier though, and in many situations, they are going to seem as if they are very nearly the same, which of
course is not generally the case.

First off, speed is a scalar and is symbolized as “v” while velocity is a vector (and so it must have a
direction) and is symbolized as “v”. Again - notice that the vector (velocity in this case) has a symbol

showing up in bold, though it would typically be hand-written as v . Oh - thinking ahead a ways ... when
investigating electricity in physics we use an upper-case “V” for an electrical measurement called
“potential”. Eventually it will be somewhat common for us to have equations that contain both “speeds” (v)
and “potentials” (V). Having both upper-case V’s and lowercase v’s in the same equation can get tricky,
especially if your v’s and V’s look similar. To avoid this, I strongly recommend you start making your
lowercase v’s look distinct. I personally put a little “tail” on the end of my lowercase v’s, to give it kind of
an italicized look. Something like this: . My hand-printed “italicized” v is then very distinct from my
hand-printed upper-case V, which basically consists of two straight lines. Sounds stupid and picky I know ...
but it really, really makes a difference in the long run. Again - I have seen way too many students go awry as
a result of their confusing their own letters.

Both speed and velocity have the same SI units: m/s. Note that while not SI, km/h are commonly used. You
should be able to “properly” convert between these units, but there is a handy shortcut that is worth
knowing:

TO CONVERT km/h TO m/s, DIVIDE BY 3.6; TO CONVERT FROM m/s TO km/h MULTIPLY BY 3.6

The reason that the distinction between speed and velocity is “tricky” is that we can talk about how fast an
object is moving at one particular moment (we call this an “instantaneous” measurement) OR we can talk
about how fast an object moved on average throughout a certain duration of time (we call this an “average”
measurement).

Here’s how it works: instantaneous values of speed and velocity will always be the exact same size
(magnitude) ... but velocity must include a direction. Let’s say that while driving in your car, you glance at
the speedometer at exactly twelve noon. At that moment, your speedometer indicates you are moving at
90 km/h (which we can divide by 3.6 to find is equal to 25 m/s), and you happen to know that you are
moving east. According to this information ....

• at twelve noon, your instantaneous speed was 25 m/s, which can be symbolized as v = 25 m/s

• at twelve noon, your instantaneous velocity was 25 m/s to the east, which can be symbolized as
v = 25 m/s [east]

Again - notice that from the above, it looks like velocity merely adds the information about direction, which
will actually be true for all instantaneous values for speed and velocity: when the motion of an object at a
particular moment in time is being considered.
Page 26 Grade 10 Physics

WARNING: The following is going to be confusing! Stick with it ... it will all make sense, but
probably not until after you have read it all, including the examples. In fact, after you read the
examples, you should come back to this point and read it again!

Sometimes we are more interested in the average motion of an object over a duration of time, and this is
when it gets a bit more tricky. To find the average speed (or average velocity) you need to consider how far
the object moved, and how long it took to move that far. BUT as we just saw ... there are two different ways
to measure “how far” an object moves.

So here’s the deal: average speed makes use of the distance that the object moved while average velocity
makes use of the displacement that the object moved. This brings us to our very first “formula” in physics,
which comes in two “versions” ... one is a scalar version with speed and distance; the other version has the
vectors displacement and velocity in it. By the way: placing a “bar” on top of a symbol signifies “average”

so v means “average speed” while v means “average velocity”. Note that I’m going to use the vector arrow
symbols (instead of bold) here to hopefully be extra clear about these two versions.
d
v (average speed equals distance divided by duration of time to move it)
t

 d
v (average velocity equals displacement divided by duration of time to move it)
t
If an object moves with a constant speed (or constant velocity), then it will actually only have one single
value for speed (or velocity), and so it would be unnecessary to refer to the “average”. When an object
moves in this unchanging way, we literally have “uniform motion”.
Uniform motion is when an object moves with constant speed (or velocity). In such cases, the actual value of

d  d
the speed (or velocity) can be found as v  or v
t t
In summary, we can use this one “basic equation” in four different ways:

1. For an object that moves with a constant speed, the “v” is that actual speed, the “d” is the distance
moved during an amount of time “Δt”.

2. For an object that moves with a varying speed, the “v” is actually v (average speed), the “d” is the
distance moved, and the “Δt” is the time taken to move that distance.

3. For an object that moves with a constant velocity, the “v” is that velocity ( v ), the “d” is the

displacement ( d ) moved, and the “Δt” is the time taken to move that displacement.

4. For an object that moves with a varying velocity, the “v” is actually
 v (average velocity), the “d” is
the displacement ( d ) moved, and the “Δt” is the time taken to move that displacement.

Trust me - this sounds way more confusing than it actually is. Here are a bunch of examples to help clear it
all up:
Grade 10 Physics Page 27

e.g. An object moves 20 metres in 10 seconds. What was its speed?

Answer: “Trick Question” ... all we know is that moved a certain distance (20 metres) in a certain time (10
seconds). Asking for “its speed” implies that it only had one value for speed, but we don’t know if that was
the case or not. Maybe it zipped quickly through the first 15 metres, then moved slowly for the last 5 metres,
taking 10 seconds in all. I have no idea if it even had “a” (singular) speed.

e.g. An object moves 20 metres in 10 seconds. What was its average speed?

Answer: I still don’t know precisely how it moved in this situation, but I don’t need to know this in order to
describe its average speed. Average speed can be calculated according to the equation:

d 20m
v   2m / s
t 10s

e.g. An object moves 20 metres in 10 seconds. What was its average velocity?

Answer: I don’t have enough information to answer this. Velocity (including average velocity) is a vector,
and so it needs a direction, but I don’t know which way the thing moved. Assuming that it moved in a
straight line, I can tell you that its displacement will also be 20 metres in size. This means that its average
velocity would have a magnitude of 2 m/s, but I would really need to know the direction in order to fully
answer this question.

e.g. An object moved 30 m to the west in 5 seconds, and maintained a uniform motion throughout the
whole 5 seconds. What was its speed?

d 30m
Answer: Since it had a uniform speed, I can tell you the actual value of the speed: v    6m / s
t 5s

e.g. An object moves 30 m to the west in 5 seconds, and maintains a uniform motion throughout the
whole 5 seconds. What was its average speed?

Answer: Since it had a uniform speed, the average speed will be the same as its actual speed: 6 m/s.
Page 28 Grade 10 Physics

e.g. An object moves 30 m to the west in 5 seconds, and maintains a uniform motion throughout the
whole 5 seconds. What was its average velocity?

 d 30m [W ]
Answer: Its average velocity can be found from its displacement and time: v    6m / s [W ]
t 5s

e.g. An object moves 30 m to the west in 5 seconds, and maintains a uniform motion throughout the
whole 5 seconds. What was its velocity?

Answer: Since it moved with uniform motion, its velocity and average velocity are the same: 6 m/s [W]

OK - now that we’ve made it through all that, I have to let you in on a little secret: Typical Physics problems
are often sloppy when it comes down to these ideas. This can actually be a bit frustrating at first as you may
be trying to be very careful about the terminology and the “actual physics” only to be let down by how
problems themselves seem to often not care about these details.

All is not lost though ... we just need to be clear about something that we are now going to introduce as
some simplifying principles:

Simplifying Principles
Unless you have good reason to do otherwise (such as information explicitly stated in a problem), we
generally assume the following things about motion:

• we MUST assume that all motion is “uniform” unless we have good reason to believe otherwise.

• Although we may not know the “actual” direction of motion, in the context of a problem, we MUST
fake it and pretend to know the direction. This is often done by simply taking the direction of motion
as being “positive” (more on directions coming later).

Again - problems often require you to use the above simplifying principles. Using these principles, let’s
have a look at two of the examples seen above again. This is the way you will actually be expected to answer
them!

e.g. An object moves 20 metres in 10 seconds. What was its speed?

Answer: Assuming that it moved with a constant speed (which we must default to), this object moved 20
d 20m
metres in 10 seconds, so its speed can be found: v   2m / s
t 10 s
Grade 10 Physics Page 29

e.g. An object moves 20 metres in 10 seconds. What was its average velocity?

Answer: Assuming that it moved with a constant velocity (which is expected), speed and velocity have the
same value, but velocity adds direction to the mix. I already found its speed above, so it’s velocity is 2 m/s
[forwards] or more simply +2 m/s.

If you understood all this on your first read through - congratulations! If you’re still a bit confused, maybe
you should go back to the to the “Warning” you received a couple of pages back, and read through that
again. It’s actually not that bad, and honestly: by the time you do a handful of textbook style problems, it
gets even more clear, so don’t worry if you’re still a bit fuzzy on this for now.
Page 30 Grade 10 Physics

Uniform Motion Practice

Directions: When appropriate (for the problems) Show all work in “GUESS” format. Answer all questions
in SI Units unless otherwise specified. Give final answers to 3 Sig Figs, but keep 5 Sig Figs for calculated
values that are used in subsequent calculations. Express your answers in scientific notation if doing so in
standard notation would result in 4 or more consecutive zero’s. Show unit conversions correctly (without
using any shortcuts) when converting units. Place a box around your final answer for problems.

1. What are two differences between distance and displacement?

2. What are two differences between speed and velocity?

3. Convert the following speeds into units of m/s

a) a typical walking speed: about 4 km/h b) a fast running speed: about 20 km/h

c) speed limit on Point Road: 50 km/h d) speed limit on a highway: 100 km/h

e) Speed limit on an American interstate highway: 75 mi/h (note that “mi” is for mile; 1mi = 1.609 km)

4. Convert the following speeds into the units of km/h

a) After falling for a full second, objects will be moving about 10 m/s

b) The speed of sound is about 340 m/s

c) Some bullets move at about 600 m/s when fired from a gun

d) “Light speed” is about 3 × 108 m/s

e) Hair grows at a rate of about 1.25 cm / month (use 1 month = 30 days here).

5. If it takes you half an hour to walk 2 km, what is your walking speed (assumed constant)?

6. Did you actually read the directions at the top of this page? Did you follow them for the problem you
just did? Are you going to follow them (all of the directions!) for all of the following problems?

7. A car is driven 120 km [west] in 1.5 hours. What was its average velocity? Answer in km/h.

8. A boy goes 13 km in 2.0 h, walking for some of it, jogging for some if, and running for the rest of it.
What was his average speed?

9. An athlete runs 100 m in 10.8 s. What is her average speed in km/h?

10. How far can cars moving at 90 km/h travel in 3/4 of an hour?

11. How long would you expect a 750 km drive to take if you were average 90 km/h? Answer in minutes.

12. If it were possible to drive the entire way around the earth at the equator, how long would it take?
Suppose you could drive at 120 km/h the entire time. The radius of the earth is about 6.37 × 10 6 m.
Answer in days.
Grade 10 Physics Page 31

Update: from this point on, you may use the “short cut” for converting between m/s and km/h

13. (a) The fastest production car ever built is the 2010 Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, which at the time I am
writing this, holds the current world record at 431 km/h (for comparison, the fastest production Ferrari
topped out at “only” 326 km/h). Suppose that you could “magically” drive to the moon in the Bugatti,
and have it hold its top speed constantly for the whole trip. How long would it take to get there this way?
The moon is 3.84 x 108 m away. Answer in days.

(b) In 2006 NASA launched a spacecraft named “ New Horizons”. After leaving Earth, it flew past the
moon in only 8 hours and 35 minutes. What was its average speed in doing so? Answer in m/s and km/h

(c) At its closest, Mars is about 54.6 million km. How long would it take to “drive” there in the Bugatti
at a constant 431 km/h? Answer in years.

(d) We have never yet sent people to Mars, but the best estimates for a future mission involves a travel
time of about 6 months to get there. What average speed will be needed to pull that off? Answer in m/s
and km/h

14. A bullet is shot from a rifle with a speed of 720 m/s. What time is required for the bullet to strike a target
500 m away?

15. Light from the sun reaches the earth in 8.3 minutes. How far is the earth from the sun? (Hint: check #4
above for more info)

16. A person runs with a velocity of 3.5 m/s for 3 minutes. After a quick break, he then walks at –1.5 m/s for
another minute. What is his displacement from where he first started?

17. On a baseball diamond, the distance from home plate to the pitcher's mound is 18.5 m. If a pitcher is
capable of throwing a ball at 38.5 m/s, how much time does it take a thrown ball to reach home plate?

18. A person walks 500 m at 2 m/s, and then runs at 4 m/s for an additional 500 m. What was her average
speed? Hint: the answer is not 3 m/s!

19. A ball rolls along the floor at a constant rate of 12 m/s for 5 seconds to the north. It hits a wall and
bounces back at 8 m/s for an additional 10 seconds. For the 15 seconds described, what is the ball’s (a)
average speed; (b) average velocity?

20. A person runs around a circular path at a constant speed of 20 km/h. The track has a radius of 1 mile.
How long does it take this person to complete one lap? Answer in minutes.

21. The earth is about 1.5 × 1011 m away from the sun. Without looking anything else up, determine the
average speed of the earth as it orbits around the sun. Hint: think about what else you know that would
be relevant here.

22. Suppose you want to drive on Pembina Hwy. from Bishop Grandin to downtown. This distance is
approximately 6 km (we’ll assume this is the exact distance here). To keep it simple, suppose that the
speed limit is 60 km/h the whole way and that you can drive the whole distance at a constant speed (you
miraculously hit every green light etc.). You are tempted to speed. How much time would be SAVED if
you recklessly (and illegally) drove 80 km/h instead of obeying the speed limit? Answer in seconds.
Page 32 Grade 10 Physics

23. In the real world, it always takes time for an object’s velocity to change, but for the sake of this question,
let’s assume that an object can move with a constant velocity, and then IMMEDIATELY change to a
different velocity, which it can then maintain (i.e. the velocity will once again be constant, but different
than it was before). Now imagine that I start a stopwatch running and I report the position of the object
at the times that these “sudden” changes occur, as summarized by the chart below. The object
maintains a constant velocity between these times, but the velocity suddenly changes at these
reported times. The positions are where the object is relative to a chosen reference position, at which
the position is defined to be 0. The object only moves in the line to the right (positive) or left (negative)
of the reference position.

Time (t) Position of object (x)

(as indicated on stopwatch) (relative to a reference pos)
0s +10 m
5s +15 m
10 s +15 m
15 s +25 m
20 s 0m
25 s +10 m
30 s –5 m

Answer each of the following based on the information provided in the chart above.

a. Was the object ever remaining stationary? If so, when?

b. Was the object ever moving to the left? If so, when?

c. What distance did the object move from t = 0 s to t = 15 s?

d. What was the object’s displacement from t = 0 s to t = 15 s?

e. What was the object’s velocity during the first 5 seconds?

f. What was the object’s average speed during the first 15 seconds?

g. What was the object’s average velocity during the first 15 seconds?

h. What was the object’s average speed from t = 10 s to t = 30 s?

i. What was the object’s average velocity from t = 10 s to t = 30 s?

j. What was the object’s position at t = 2 s?

k. What was the object’s position at t = 28 s?

Grade 10 Physics Page 33

Part 4 - Accelerated Motion

Uniform motion is pretty simple. If an object maintains a constant velocity, then that velocity can be found

 d
according to the equation v and if an object has a varying velocity, you can still find the average
t 
 d
velocity according to the equation v  . This section is all about “varying velocities” ... which we may
refer to as accelerated motion.  t
Acceleration has one meaning in ordinary (non-physics) usage, but a rather different meaning in physics.
Most people use the word “accelerate” to mean “increase in speed”. In physics, we use the word accelerate
any time that an object’s velocity is changing. This means that an object that is speeding up is indeed
“accelerating” BUT ... in physics, we would also say that an object that is slowing down is also
accelerating(!)

IN PHYSICS, AN OBJECT MAY BE SAID TO BE ACCELERATING IF IT IS SPEEDING UP OR SLOWING DOWN

Most people use the word “decelerate” for an object that is slowing down, but the word “decelerate” is a
word that we will avoid using. It is also possible for an object to be accelerating even if it is moving at a
constant speed(!!) I promise that this actually makes sense, but you have to be open minded (and wait until
30S Physics where this will be explained). It turns out that there are incredibly good reasons to use the word
“accelerate” the way we do.

Acceleration is a measure of how quickly an object’s velocity is changing. If an object has a constant
(unchanging) velocity, then it is not accelerating. If its’ velocity is changing, then it is accelerating. The
more “dramatically” that its velocity is changing ... the greater its’ acceleration is.

ACCELERATION IS A MEASURE OF HOW RAPIDLY AN OBJECT ’S VELOCITY IS CHANGING

Let’s consider some examples. We will deal with direction in the “simple” way that we often choose to. We
will consider “forwards” to be a direction that we will consider to be positive and “backwards” (or
“reverse”) to be the negative direction.

Acceleration of an Object that is Speeding Up

Suppose a car is stopped (velocity is zero) at a traffic light that is presently red. At the moment that the light
changes to green the car begins to move; it goes faster and faster as time goes on (at least for the first little
while, which is all that we will focus on here). Suppose that a passenger starts a stopwatch at the same
moment that the light turned green, and that he records the value on the speedometer every second. The
values of the stopwatch reading and the car’s velocity (forwards being treated as the positive direction) are
summarized in the chart below:
Page 34 Grade 10 Physics

Stop Watch Reading Car’s velocity


(t) (v )
0 0
1s 10 km/h
2s 20 km/h
3s 30 km/h
4s 40 km/h
5s 50 km/h

From the above values, it is pretty clear that the car was speeding up (and so it’s velocity was indeed
changing). In describing how quickly the velocity changed, we can say that the car’s velocity increased by
10 km/h per second. This can actually be written as 10 km/h /s.

Suppose that the above is repeated, but this time a faster car is used. The results of this run are recorded
below:

t v
0 0
1s 20 km/h
2s 40 km/h
3s 60 km/h
4s 80 km/h
5s 100 km/h

Clearly this car’s velocity changed more quickly than the one in the first example. This car’s velocity
changed at a rate of 20 km/h /s.

The values 10 km/h /s for the first car, and 20 km/h /s for the second car are actually indications of the
accelerations of the cars. The unit for velocity we used, however, is not in SI units. We could go about
converting the above into SI units, but let’s instead imagine a third car that happens to have a speedometer
already marked off in m/s (I’ve never seen such a car speedometer, but it’s not hard to imagine one).
Grade 10 Physics Page 35

Suppose this third car moved according to this data:


t v
0 0
1s 5 m/s
2s 10 m/s
3s 15 m/s
4s 20 m/s
5s 25 m/s

Hopefully it is clear that this car gained 5 m/s of velocity each and every second, and so its acceleration can
be reported as “5 metres per second, per second”. If you say that too quickly, it sounds really weird because
you’d actually be saying “per second” twice. But it would be correct, with each “per second” having a
different meaning: the first “per second” is part of the velocity unit in “m/s” while the next “per second” is
about the change that’s occurring. It makes more sense if you put a bit of a pause in between them to make
this clear: the car’s acceleration is 5 metres per second <pause> per second.

Mathematically, we can record this acceleration as 5 m/s /s, but we usually don’t like to have the same unit
(or variable for that matter) appear in two different places in the same measurement ... we usually prefer to
“simplify” it, so let’s go ahead and do that. The “slashes” (/) really mean divide, so this can be written like
this:

m/ s/ s  m s s
And this might be easier to think about if we make each part look more like a fraction, so let’s do that:

m s s
m s s   
1 1 1

Dividing fractions can be achieved by “inverting and multiplying” so the above can be rewritten:

m s s m 1 1
    
1 1 1 1 s s

Which of course can be simplified by multiplying all of the numerators together (m×1×1) to give the overall
numerator (m) and also multiplying all of the denominators together (1×s×s) to give the overall denominator
(s2). This means that

m 1 1 m
m/s/s =    2  m / s2
1 s s s
Page 36 Grade 10 Physics

With “m/s2” being a nicely simplified version of what we started with, it is the SI Unit for acceleration. The
lesson to be learned here is that while “m/s 2” might look a little strange (it’s hard to wrap your head around
the s2 part if you think of it on its own) ... it really means nothing more than metres per second <pause> per
second. I find that pause to be really important by the way!

ACCELERATION IS A MEASURE OF HOW QUICKLY AN OBJECT ’S VELOCITY IS CHANGING. IT IS SYMBOLIZED AS

“a” IN EQUATIONS AND HAS THE SI UNITS OF m/s2.

Acceleration of an Object That is Slowing Down

I mentioned above that even an object that are slowing down are considered to be “accelerating” in physics
(and the word “decelerate” is to be avoided). Let’s have a look at how this works by collecting data with a
stopwatch in a car again, but this time let’s consider a car that is already moving while being braked to a
stop. We will again consider forwards to be the positive direction. Suppose that the following data are
recorded:

t v
0 20 m/s
1s 16 m/s
2s 12 m/s
3s 8 m/s
4s 4 m/s
5s 0 m/s

Remember: acceleration describes the change that is occurring to the velocity, so let’s just ask this question:
how is the velocity of this car changing? One good answer would be to say that “the car’s velocity is having
4 m/s subtracted each second.” It might be a bit less natural, but another way of saying this is to say that the
car is “gaining -4 m/s of velocity each second” which is to say that its velocity is changing at a rate of
-4 m/s2. Indeed, we would say that this car has an acceleration a = -4 m/s2.

So at this point you might be tempted to say “ahah - I get it” ... positive acceleration means you are speeding
up while negative acceleration is for slowing down” BUT this is NOT (always) the case! Since we had no
problem imagining the car’s speedometer marked off in m/s, it shouldn’t be much more of a stretch of the
imagination to consider the car’s speedometer to actually include negative values too. Again - I’ve never
seen a car’s speedometer like this, but imagine a speedometer that tells you how fast it is moving
“backwards” with a negative reading when the car is put in reverse. If you actually had such a
“speedometer” I would recommend calling it a “velocitometer”!

NEGATIVE ACCELERATION IS NOT THE SAME AS DECELERATION!

Grade 10 Physics Page 37

Let’s consider a car that is initially stopped (or “at rest”). The driver then puts it into reverse and steps on the
gas. The passenger does his thing with the stopwatch and the newly installed “velocitometer”. Here are the
results:

t v
0 0 m/s
1s -2 m/s
2s -4 m/s
3s -6 m/s
4s -8 m/s
5s -10 m/s

Ready for this? According to this information, the car had an acceleration of -2 m/s2, but notice that it was
actually speeding up (in reverse). Let’s say that the brakes are then gently applied, resulting in this new
information from the passenger (who also reset the stopwatch before collecting more data):

t v
0 -10 m/s
1s -9 m/s
2s -8 m/s
3s -7 m/s
4s -6 m/s
5s -5 m/s

Like it or not, this car had a positive acceleration. Its’ acceleration is +1 m/s2 ... yet it was actually slowing
down. Confused? Maybe this summary will help:

Acceleration can be positive or negative, but the sign does not on its own tell you if the object is speeding up
or slowing down. Acceleration is a vector. The sign is really just an indication of which direction it is
accelerating. If an object accelerates in the same direction that it is moving, it is speeding up; if an object
accelerates in the opposite direction from that of its motion, it is slowing down.
Page 38 Grade 10 Physics

Still confused? Maybe this summary of the summary will help:

Velocity Acceleration Motion

Positive Positive Speeding up
Positive Negative Slowing down
Negative Negative Speeding up
Negative Positive Slowing down

If this is still confusing, hopefully this summary to the summary of the summary will help:

Velocity and Acceleration Motion

same sign Speeding up
opposite sign Slowing down

OK - maybe you’re not confused, but you’re just not “buying it”. It is very tempting for students to think
something along the lines of “this is stupid ... I know that accelerate really means speeding up”. Let me be
blunt about this one: if you think that, you are wrong. Not a “little big wrong” - you’re completely wrong in
ways that you’re really not prepared for yet. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to take my word for - at
least for the moment. As we learn more and more physics (especially in grades 11 and 12 Physics) you will
start to see how the “physics meaning” of acceleration is actually brilliant, and the “casual” understanding is
woefully over simplified (and wrong). Sometimes learning Physics requires you to rethink what you believe!

Freely Falling Objects

It is obvious that falling objects accelerate - that is, their velocity changes as they fall. In “real life” the exact
nature of this acceleration is quite complicated: the mass of the object, its shape, and how it is dropped all
play a role in the acceleration, as does the air pressure, temperature and composition. The truth is that the
physics of this type of motion is exceptionally complicated (definitely beyond high school) and so we do
something that we will often do in such a case: we ignore some of the complexity by making a
simplification of reality. We must acknowledge that by doing so we are sacrificing some accuracy, but if we
limit ourselves to certain situations, our approximations will be quite good.

The simplification that we will make here is that there is no air, or at least that any influence of the air is
negligible (i.e. small enough to be safely ignored). “Air resistance” can be safely ignored for objects that are
reasonably heavy compared to their size, and are not moving too quickly. We will always assume that air
resistance is not involved in any situation we come across, unless we are specifically instructed to do
otherwise, or if we really need to analyze a situation in a more “real life” way.

Remarkably, if air resistance is not present (or small enough to be considered negligible), the acceleration of
a falling body is constant. In fact, the acceleration of a falling body does not depend on any of the factors
that were originally listed above! It comes down to an incredibly simple situation in which the acceleration
of all freely falling bodies is the same. This “acceleration due to gravity” is so important that you need to
Grade 10 Physics Page 39

memorize its’ value: all objects freely falling near Earth’s surface do so with an acceleration of 9.8 m/s 2.
This value actually changes a little from one spot on Earth to another, as the strength of gravity depends on
where exactly you are (more on this in grade 11 Physics). It can be very different if on a different planet, or
place such as the moon (where the free fall acceleration is about 1.6 m/s 2).

A “FREELY FALLING OBJECT” IS ONE THAT IS AFFECTED ONLY BY GRAVITY. OBJECTS FALLING NEAR EARTH’S
SURFACE HAVE AN ACCELERATION OF 9.8 m/s2 [DOWN].

The idea that all falling objects accelerate at the same rate does not agree well with our everyday
experiences: we know that a falling tissue and a falling phone do not fall at the same rate. Common sense
tells us that heavy objects fall faster. Common sense is often wrong, and is definitely wrong on this one.

It is very easy to show that heavy objects do not as a rule fall faster. This false belief comes from the way
air resistance often affects objects. Consider two pieces of paper: one piece is a full sheet and the other only
half of a sheet. The full sheet will clearly be twice as heavy as the half-sheet. Now crumple up the half-sheet
to a small ball, and leave the full sheet flat. If they are both dropped it will be very easy to see that the full
sheet (the heavy one) falls slower. It can be shown (though not as easily) that if both are dropped in a
vacuum (where there genuinely is no air) both will fall together, at the same rate as falling feathers,
marshmallows, cats and anvils (although I strongly discourage dropping cats in a vacuum).

ALL OBJECTS FALL WITH THE SAME ACCELERATION REGARDLESS OF HOW HEAVY THEY ARE , ASSUMING AIR
RESISTANCE IS SMALL ENOUGH TO REASONABLY BE IGNORED

The above is applicable to problems as we now automatically know the acceleration of any object that is
being pulled on only by gravity near Earth. By the way, we default to assuming we are on Earth where this
acceleration is 9.8 m/s2 [down] unless told otherwise.

Problems here will often need us to realize the vector nature of the kinematics involved. To deal with the
directions, for each problem we must state which direction we choose to be positive. The convention we
will use is simple: if an object moves up at any point, we will default to choosing up to be positive (and so
a = -9.8 m/s2). If on the other hand, the object only moves in a downward direction, we will choose down to
be positive (a = +9.8 m/s2). Actually state this in your solution to a problem! (ex: “Up is +”).

Another thing you must understand is that the acceleration of an object being pulled on only by gravity is
9.8 m/s2 (positive or negative depending on what is chosen to be positive) in the downward direction for the
entire time that it is moving.

Convince yourself of this by realizing that while moving up, objects influenced only by gravity slow down
(which is an acceleration opposite the direction of motion: i.e. down), and while moving down they speed up
(which is an acceleration in the direction of motion: again down). At the critical instant in time in which it
is neither moving up nor down (at the very top of its motion) it must still be accelerating in the downward
direction! If it was not accelerating (as many would believe) then its velocity would be constant (that is
what 0 acceleration implies) ... constant velocity of zero would mean the object stays up there in the air
levitating!

OBJECTS THAT ARE ONLY BEING AFFECTED BY EARTH’S GRAVITY MOVE WITH CONSTANT ACCELERATION OF
a = 9.8 m/s2 [DOWN]
Page 40 Grade 10 Physics

Kinematics of Objects moving with Constant Acceleration

I have to confess a little detail that I purposely skipped over earlier. In all of the scenarios involving cars
moving earlier in the chapter with the speedometer being observed every second, I kind of assumed (without
saying so until now) that the speed changed very “smoothly”. With real cars, this would not be likely as real
cars tend to move in a complicated way as gears change, and engine parameters vary with speed. Basically, I
pretended that the velocity of the car was always changing in a very constant way. More specifically, I
assumed that the cars moved with a constant acceleration.

This is actually a “default assumption” we need to make about accelerating objects. Basically, the rule we
always follow is that we assume the simplest situation that is consistent with the information we have. If we
are told an object moves “20 metres in 10 seconds” ... we automatically assume its velocity was constant. If
we are told that a car goes “from zero to 60 km/h in 5 seconds” ... we automatically assume it had a constant
value of acceleration (we cannot assume its velocity was constant as that is not consistent with the
information). In fact, it’s worth pointing out that although objects very much can move with varying
acceleration, we will only consider objects that move with constant acceleration at this time.

For objects that move with a constant acceleration (which is to say, the velocity changes in a very “smooth”
way, from one value to another), there are exactly 5 kinematic measurements that we focus our attention on
over any specific interval of time:

• The velocity of the object at the beginning of the interval of time being investigated. As we may
choose to begin our analysis whenever we want, this beginning velocity will sometimes be zero, and
sometimes it won’t be zero. Again - there is no single “official” symbol for this idea, but I like to call
this the “initial velocity” and so I symbolize it as vi. Note that this letter (and many others below) is
in bold, indicating that it is a vector, and so has direction. When hand-writing these vectors, don’t
forget to put the vector arrow symbol on top of the letter.

• The velocity of the object at the “end” of the interval being considered. Again - we can choose any
moment to be the “end” point, and based on this choice, the end velocity may or may not be zero. I
call this the “final velocity” and so I symbolize it as vf.

• The displacement of the object for the interval of time being considered, which is to say where the
object ends up at the end compared to where it was at the beginning (including direction). Note that
“distance” is actually something that we less often “care” about! We tend to nearly always focus on
displacement and not distance, especially in the case of constant acceleration. We have already
introduced the symbol for displacement as d.

• The duration of the time interval that we are considering in our analysis. This is Δt. Remember that
time itself (t) is the “reading on a clock” while Δt is the duration (or elapsed time) for a specific
interval of time. You will very often see people (me included) sometimes get lazy and just “t” for a
time interval. This really is not a good idea, so do use Δt and not just t! You will thank me later.

• The acceleration of the object as it transitions from the initial velocity to the final velocity. Again -
we assume that this is a constant acceleration, and have already introduced its symbol as a.

IN THE KINEMATICS OF AN OBJECT WITH CONSTANT ACCELERATION, WE KEEP TRACK OF 5 THINGS: INITIAL
VELOCITY (vi), FINAL VELOCITY (vf), DISPLACEMENT (d), TIME (Δt) AND ACCELERATION (a).
Grade 10 Physics Page 41

Considering that there are 5 things that we keep track of, I’ll tell you that it is not a coincidence that there are
exactly 5 equations that pertain to constant acceleration. These 5 equations together form a “set” of
equations that we will use often. It’s well worth memorizing them (especially if you plan to take AP Physics
next year), even though they will be given to you on your Grade 10 tests and exam. Really - you do NOT
want to have to look them up every time you need them.

There is an important “pattern” in the set of equations we are about to list off. Each of the 5 equations
includes only four of the 5 things that we are interested in. This means that each equation is missing one of
the 5 things. This is really, really useful to be aware of.

One of the things that can be difficult for students at first is in choosing which equation to use. Although
problems can definitely get tougher, your basic kinematics problems tends to follow a rather unimaginative
“recipe” which goes something like this:

• The problem tells you the value of three of the five quantities (Givens)

• The problem asks you to find the value of one of the five quantities (Unknown)

• The problem makes no mention of one of the five quantities

For super basic problems like this, if you can identify the one piece that is completely “missing” from the
problem, you can then choose the equation based on this ... as the one you need is also “missing” that same
piece. We’ll put this to work in a couple of examples right away, but first let’s list off the 5 equations (in no
particular order):

The Kinematics Equations for Constant Acceleration

Kinematics Equation “Missing”

   
v f  vi  a t d
 2 2 
v f  vi  2ad Δt
   
d  0.5(vi  v f ) t a
   
d  vi t  0.5a t 2 vf
   
d  v f t  0.5a t 2 vi

A Note About the Vector Nature of the Kinematics Equations

Notice in the above equations that all of the symbols are vectors except for time. Time is indeed a scalar: it
only has a magnitude (how much time), but not a direction. Everything else (velocity, displacement and
acceleration) is directional. Again - we will address the directionality with a sign: positive or negative, as
described within each problem that we solve. The most common place that students “screw up” in
kinematics is in the directionality part. You really need to pay attention to it!
Page 42 Grade 10 Physics

Having said this, I have to say that it can be really tedious to put all of those little “vector symbols” above
the letters. To be clear: they “should” be there - they do serve a purpose (to remind you that these things are
vectors) ... but I also have to be honest: I just can’t bring myself to do it when I’m “really” solving physics
problems. And I’m not alone. Heck - even many textbooks laze out and doesn’t bother with the vector
notation in these equations.

So its time for a confession of laziness: from this point forwards, I won’t bother putting in the vector
notation within the work of solving problems. You can feel free to do the same of course. The one thing that
is NOT negotiable is whether or not they are “actually” vectors. They are. You must be conscious of the
directionality, as we will see in the examples right away.

One thing might occur to you based on this: If we’re going to “skip” out on the vector symbols, how are we

going to be able to tell the difference between distance (d) and displacement (d or d ). The answer may
actually surprise you. Outside of the very beginning, we rarely care about distance in physics(!) Similarly,
we almost never care about speed, as we almost always prefer velocity. You need to know the formal
difference between distance and displacement, and between speed and velocity, but once we pull up our
sleeves and start really doing physics, those differences quickly fade away.

Summary: when you come across a letter “v” in a physics equation, treat it like a vector (velocity). When
you come across a “d” in a physics equation, treat it like a vector (displacement). For now, the only
exception to this is in a rare case of dealing with the speed and distance of an object in a simple case of
v = d/t, in those problems that explicitly use those words.
Grade 10 Physics Page 43

OK - that’s enough for now. Let’s get to work with a few examples of how all of this comes together.

E.g. A car begins from rest. It moves with a constant acceleration of 2 m/s 2. Find how far it moves after
5 seconds.

OK - so this is a completely typical kinematics problem. It’s also quite friendly in being very explicit about
details that we sometimes have to assume (like the acceleration being constant). It also perfectly fits the
mould of “here are 3 givens and 1 unknown” with no mention of the 5 th thing that could have been part of
the scenario, but isn’t. Our “GUESS” method will chew this problem up nicely. I don’t think we really need
a diagram at all, and as for direction, we’ll just use our “Forwards is positive” since we don’t really know
which way the car is moving. Remember also - I’m not bothering with the vector symbols, but everything
here is a vector except for time. I’m also not putting the units into the math, though I am ensuring that I am
using nothing but SI units, and so am guaranteed to get the answer also in SI units.

Forwards +

vi = 0 vi is zero because it’s not moving at the start

a = 2 m/s2 the acceleration is given

Δt = 5 s the duration of time is also given

d=? “How far it goes” is displacement, which is the unknown here.

d = vi Δt + 0.5a Δt2 I chose this equation because it doesn’t have a vf in it - which is the one thing
that doesn’t show up in this problem

d = 0(5) + 0.5(2)(5)2 Subbing the values in

d = 25 m And Solving for the answer - done!

Page 44 Grade 10 Physics

e.g. A ball is dropped. Find how far it moves after 3 seconds.

At first, students sometimes get hung up on a problem like this. After all: there’s only one number actually
printed in the problem, and so it’s tempting to think that maybe we don’t have enough information to solve
it. However the word “drop” is a loaded word. The word “drop” tells us it was released from rest (as
opposed to “thrown”). Also - because of the required assumptions (namely that this object is going to fall
with only gravity affecting it ... i.e. air resistance etc. are assumed to be safely ignored), then we
automatically know that it will accelerate at the memorized rate of 9.8 m/s 2 [down]. Since the object only
moves downward, I’m going to use down as my chosen positive direction, which makes the sign of the
acceleration positive. With these ideas in place, let’s get to it:

Down +

vi = 0 Since it was “dropped”

a = 9.8 m/s2 gravity is the only thing affecting it; it accelerates “down” (positive here)

Δt = 3 s As given in the problem

d=? The “unknown”

d = vi Δt + 0.5a Δt2 This is the equation that doesn’t have vf in it, which isn’t in this problem.

d = 0(3) + 0.5(9.8)(3)2

d = 44.1 m Subbing (above) and solving to get the answer.

e.g. A ball is dropped. Find how far it moves after 3 seconds.

Nope - that’s not an accident: this is the exact same problem as the previous one. Just to make a point, let
me show you what would happen if I choose to let up be positive instead. The acceleration is still going to
be down, so if I choose up as my positive reference direction, I’m going to have to make the sign of the
acceleration negative. Watch how this plays out:

Up +

vi = 0

a = -9.8 m/s2 It is still accelerating “down” which is now negative since up is positive.

Δt = 3 s

d=?

d = vi Δt + 0.5a Δt2

d = 0(3) + 0.5(-9.8)(3)2

d = -44.1 m
Grade 10 Physics Page 45

It seems like we have a different answer this time. The previous answer was positive 44.1 m, and now I have
negative 44.1 m ... so is it “really” positive or negative? Actually - that’s a bad question. In truth, I got the
exact same answer both times. Remember that “d” here is displacement, which is a vector. The sign is really
just an indication of the direction, but it’s only meaningful in conjunction with the stated reference direction.
Both answers really are the same “down 44.1 m”. This is crazy important! You really do have to be
consistent and careful with your directions. That’s why I actually state my reference in each and every
problem.

To be very clear: this does NOT apply to any scalar quantity. Scalars as a rule can be positive or negative,
but it’s not a matter of “choice”. There should be one clear value for scalars which may be positive or
negative depending on the problem. As an example, a temperature of -20 C and a temperature of +20 C are
not at all the same thing at all. Temperature is a scalar, and as such the sign has nothing to do with direction.

e.g. A ball is thrown upwards at a speed of 15 m/s. How long does it take the ball to reach the highest
point?

A pretty straight forward problem, though the first time you come across something like this, you might be a
bit confused about “initial” velocity and “final” velocity. Here’s something to consider: maybe the initial
velocity is zero because you were just holding (at rest) in your hand, and then you threw it, eventually letting
it go at a (final) velocity of 15 m/s. Thinking this way, vi = 0 and vf = 15 m/s.

Actually, that would not be helpful. It’s not really “wrong” ... but it won’t solve our problem. We need to
know how high the ball reached after flying through the air. If you were to end your analysis when you let it
go, your analysis won’t include the very motion we are looking to investigate. Our analysis needs to include
it getting “up there”. In fact, we are going to end our analysis when it gets at the very highest point. By
definition, it stops rising at the highest point, so we are actually going to need to set v f = 0. What about the
initial velocity? It was originally standing still in your hand before you threw it right? Maybe v i = 0 too then?

Again - it’s not technically “wrong” to say that, but if you begin your analysis prior to your making it move,
the ball will have had a very complicated motion: it will have accelerated upwards for a short time while in
your hands and being pushed by them, and then after you let it go, it will have become a “freely falling”
object with only gravity acting on it, and so will have an acceleration of 9.8 m/s 2 [down]. We can only work
mathematically with objects that move with a constant acceleration and if your analysis includes both parts
(while in your hand AND while flying through the air) ... the acceleration won’t have been constant
throughout.

The solution is to begin your analysis at the moment you let it go, and end it when it gets to the highest
point. This segment of motion will include the moment needed (at the highest point) and will consist of only
one single constant acceleration (free fall acceleration) ... so it’ll work beautifully. Since it moves upwards,
I’m going to choose up as my positive reference. This will make the sign of v i positive, and the acceleration
from gravity negative. Here we go:
Page 46 Grade 10 Physics

Up +

vi = 15 m/s

vf = 0

a = -9.8 m/s2

Δt = ?

vf = vi + a Δt

Δt = (vf - vi)/a = (0 - 15) / (-9.8)

Δt = 1.53 s

e.g. Just for fun - let’s solve this problem again, this time letting down be positive:

Down +

vi = -15 m/s

vf = 0

a = 9.8 m/s2

Δt = ?

vf = vi + a Δt

Δt = (vf - vi)/a = (0 - (-15)) / (9.8)

t = 1.53 s

Wow - we got the exact same answer. Cool - it doesn’t “matter” what your choice of reference direction is ...
as long as you are consistent with its use!

OK - that is the end of Part 4. Now you need to actually work with these ideas on your own a whole bunch
in order to get good at it!
Grade 10 Physics Page 47

Accelerated Motion Practice

Don’t forget to use SI units for all problems unless otherwise specified. Show all work! Give final answers to 3
figures unless otherwise specified.

1. A car starts from rest and accelerates uniformly over a time of 5.21 seconds for a distance of 110 m. What is the
acceleration of the car?

2. A race car accelerates from 18.5 m/s to 46.2 m/s over a period of 2.47 s. What is the acceleration of the car?

3. A car is described as being able to “from zero to 60 miles per hour in 4.8 seconds”. Based on this, what is the
acceleration of the car (in our preferred units)? Note that 1 mile = 1.61 km.

4. What distance does the car from the previous question move during the 4.8 seconds described?

5. A ball is thrown straight upwards at 15 m/s. What maximum height does it reach above the point it was released
from?

6. A rock is dropped from a height of 8 m above the ground. How long does it take to reach the ground?

7. A book is dropped from a height of 1.5 m above the floor. How fast is the book moving when it hits the floor?

8. An engineer designs an airport runway. The plane with the smallest acceleration will have an acceleration of 3
m/s2. The takeoff speed of that plane is 72 m/s. Based on this, what is the minimum needed length of the
runway?

9. A car travelling at 27.5 m/s skids to a stop in 3.1 s. What is the skidding distance of the car? What is the
acceleration experienced by the car?

10. The observation deck of a tall skyscraper is 370 m above the street. What is the time required for a penny to free
fall from the deck to the street below? Assume no air resistance.

11. What would be the speed of the penny from the previous question when it arrives at the street?

12. An jet has a takeoff speed of 88.4 m/s and requires 1365 m of runway to reach this speed. What is the
acceleration of the jet?

13. How much time does it take the jet of the previous problem to achieve the takeoff speed?

14. A car travelling at 24.5 m/s accelerates at a rate of 2.14 m/s 2 for a time of 12.3 s. What is the final velocity of the
car?

15. What is the distance moved by the car in the previous problem during the time described?

16. A driver is travelling at 60 km/h. Initially this velocity is constant. Suddenly, a child runs onto the road. The
driver takes 0.5 seconds to react and hit the brakes, and then skids to a stop, slowing down at a rate of 8m/s 2.
Fortunately the car stops without hitting the child (who remained “frozen” in place on the road). How far did the
car move, from when the child first ran onto the road, until it comes to a stop?

17. A car moving along the highway slows down upon entering a construction zone. After 3.5 seconds of slowing
down it is moving at 50 km/h. If it slowed down at a rate of 4.8 m/s 2, how fast was it moving when it first entered
the construction zone?

18. A jet slows down to 250 m/s in a time of 12 s over which time it moves 3.5 km. What was its acceleration?
Page 48 Grade 10 Physics

19. A drag racing car accelerates at 14 m/s2 from rest. After moving 450 m a parachute is used to slow it down to a
stop. If the parachute slows the car at a rate of 7.0 m/s 2,what is the total distance that the car travels from start to
finish?

20. An object is thrown upwards from a cliff at 10 m/s. It rises and then falls to the ground below its release point,
hitting the ground at 20 m/s.

a. What is the object’s displacement?

b. How long did it take for the object to move this way?

21. A ball is thrown up at a velocity of 29.4 m/s at time t = 0. What is its average velocity ...

a. from t = 0 to t = 1 s

b. from t = 0 to t = 5 s

c. from t = 0 to t = 6 s

d. from t = 0 to t = 7 s

e. from t = 2 s to t = 4 s

22. Superwoman is hovering above the ground when a person skydiving goes by her at 140 km/h. Due to air
resistance, the skydiver maintains this speed. Unfortunately, the skydiver’s parachute fails to open. Fortunately,
superwoman is around. If it takes her 1.9 s to realize the person is in distress (her reactions are super fast, but it
took her this long to realize that the skydiver was indeed in trouble), what must her acceleration be if she is to
catch the parachutist just before he hits the ground, 1000 m below?

23. A police car stopped at a set of lights has a speeder pass it at 100 km/h (constant). If the police car can accelerate
at 3.6 m/s2 ...

a. How long does it take to catch up to the speeder?

b. How far would the police car have to go before it catches up to the speeder?

c. What would its speed be when it caught up with the car?

24. A falling flowerpot takes 0.20 s to fall past a window that is 1.9 m tall. From what height above the window was
the flowerpot dropped?

25. Two rugby players are running towards each other. They are 37 m apart. If one is accelerating from rest at 0.5
m/s2 and the other was already moving at 3.1 m/s and maintains his speed,

a. How long before they crunch together?

b. How fast was the accelerating player going?

c. How far has each player run?

Grade 10 Physics Page 49

26. While driving at 90.0 km/h, you see a moose on the road directly in front of you. It takes you 0.800 s to react at
which point you begin to brake your car.

a. How far will the car travel before applying the brakes?

b. If the brakes slow the car at a rate of 9.3 m/s2 what is the total distance the car travels before it stops,
from when the moose was first spotted?

27. A subway train starts from rest at a station and accelerates at the rate of 2.00 m/s 2 for 10.0 s. The train runs at a
constant speed for the next 30.0 s and then decelerates at 2.40 m/s 2 until it stops at the next station.

a. What is the total distance between the stations?

b. What is the average speed of the train in moving from station to station?

28. A skier starts from rest and then accelerates at 3.00 m/s2 for 4.00 s. The skier's speed then stays constant for 7.00
s before the skier comes to rest after decelerating for 5.00 s.

a. What is the distance travelled in each of the three parts of the motion described above?

b. What is the average speed for the entire motion?

29. An object begins at a position of -15 m and is initially (t = 0) not moving. At time t = 3 s it starts to accelerate at
3.7 m/s2 until t = 7 seconds at which point it begins to slow down until it stops at t = 15 s. What is its position at
t = 15 s?

30. An object only moves in the line to the north (positive) or south (negative) of the reference position. It begins at a
position of +25 m. Its velocity is recorded every 5 seconds as shown below. The object moves with constant
acceleration between the indicated times (which may be zero).

Time (t) Velocity of object (v)

0s -8 m/s
5s -8 m/s
10 s +2 m/s
15 s +2 m/s

Answer each of the following based on the information provided in the chart above.

a. Was the object ever moving with constant velocity? If so, when?

b. Was the object ever slowing down? If so, when?

c. Was the object ever speeding up? If so, when?

d. What displacement did the object have from t = 0 to t = 15 s?

e. What is the object’s position at each of the reported times?

f. What was the object’s acceleration at t = 8.75 s?

g. What was the object’s velocity at t = 6 s?

h. At what time was the object’s velocity 0?

Page 50 Grade 10 Physics

Note: The remaining questions / problems are meant to be more challenging. If you enjoy these kinds of problems,
then you really should consider doing AP Physics next year!

31. We have seen one equation for uniform motion (v = d/Δt) and 5 other equations that were described as being for
motion with a constant acceleration. Are these 5 other equations valid for uniform motion? Using each of the 5
equations one at a time, show mathematically why or why not.

32. An object is dropped from the top of a 10 story tall building. Each floor is exactly 3 meters tall. What is the
object’s average speed for its motion from the top of the 7th floor to the bottom of the 5th floor?

33. A model rocket is launched upward from the ground. It accelerates upward at 86 m/s 2 for 1.7 s at which point its
fuel runs out. It continues to rise upward for a while before falling back to the ground. What was the maximum
height above the ground that it reached?

34. A car is initially beside a truck. Both move forwards in the same direction. The car moves at a constant speed of
15 m/s while the truck begins from rest and accelerates with a constant acceleration of 3 m/s 2. Initially the car
moves ahead of the truck due to its slow start, but the truck eventually catches up to the car and is again beside it
for a moment before it passes it. How much time does it take for the truck to catch up to the car?

35. A ball is dropped to the floor from a height of 3 m. When it bounces off of the floor, it initially moves upwards
with a speed that is only half of the speed it had when it initially arrived at the floor from its fall. What maximum
height does it reach after bouncing from the floor?

36. A ball is dropped from a height of 30 m above the ground. At the same time that the ball is dropped, a small rock
is thrown upwards from the ground with an initial speed of 20 m/s. The ball and the rock do not hit each other,
but travel very nearly on the same vertical line. Find the distance between the ball and the rock (a) 1 second into
their motions (b) 2 seconds into their motions

37. A riding lawnmower cuts grass as it moves. The width of the path it cuts is 0.75 m. The lawnmower moves with a
constant speed of 1.2 m/s. If we ignore the time it takes the lawnmower to make turns (etc.), and also assume that
it is operated with perfect precision so that its full width is always cutting grass, then how long would it take this
lawnmower to cut the grass of a field that is 25m by 90 m?

38. A dog walks in a straight line at a constant speed of 1.2 m/s for two minutes. It then immediately turns around
and runs back to its starting position. How fast must it run back (at a constant speed) in order for its average
speed for the whole “back and forth” motion to be 1.5 m/s?

39. A person starts at home and walks in a straight line at 1 m/s for a while. She then turns around and heads home.
How fast must she move on her return to home in order for her average speed the whole motion to be 2 m/s?
Ignore any time that it would take her to turn around and change to the new speed.

40. Sound moves through the air at a constant speed of 340 m/s, and is not affected by gravity. A person drops an
object to the ground and at the same moment that they let it go, they also shout loudly, effectively “racing” the
falling object with the sound that is also moving downwards towards the ground. How high above the ground
must the person drop the object from, so that the sound of their shout arrives at the ground at the same moment as
the falling object? Note that this question is not very realistic as the object would need to fall for a very large
distance at very high speeds, so air resistance would in reality be not wise to ignore ... but we will ignore it
anyway for the sake of this question.
Grade 10 Physics Page 51

Part 5 - Motion Graphs

rise y
The slope of a straight line can be found as = = .
run x
A “position-time graph” shows the position of an object on the vertical axis and time on the horizontal axis. Note
that there is no “x” nor is there a “y” on such a graph

If an object moves in a way that a position-time graph for its motion is a straight line, the slope of this line can be
found by the same methods as before, but using time and position in place of x and y:


rise  position d
SLOPE ON A POSITION-TIME GRAPH =   = VELOCITY.
run time t

In the exact same way, we can consider a velocity-time graph (assumed to be a straight line):

rise velocity v
SLOPE ON A VELOCITY-TIME GRAPH =    ACCELERATION.
run time t

We may consider the average slope over an interval of a curve by choosing two points on the curve – one at each
end of the curved section we want to determine an average slope for. We can connect these points with a straight line.
This straight line may be called a secant line, and its slope (found in the usual way for a line) is the average slope of
the section of the curve we were interested in.

If we want to find the slope of the curve at one particular point on the curve, we simply repeat the above process,
but choose two points that are very close together (one on each side of the point of interest). Getting the exact slope
would require that these two points be “infinitely close” together, but we can get often get a good approximation of
this slope with two points that are merely “really close” (but separated enough that we can still visually work with
them. The slope of this straight line (now called a “tangent line”) will be the slope of the curve at the point of
interest.

Turning now to the notion of area associated with a graph, we need to make three extensions to what you already
know about area:

• The area associated with a graph is defined to be the area confined between the plot and the horizontal
axis, with vertical lines sectioning off interval for which the area is being determined.

• The area in a graph is regarded as being positive if it is above the horizontal axis and negative if it is
below the horizontal axis.

• The units of the area associated with a graph are generally NOT what you would expect for area. The units
come from multiplying the units found on the horizontal and vertical axes.

AREA UNDER A VELOCITY-TIME GRAPH = VELOCITY (TIME I NTERVAL) = DISPLACEMENT.

Page 52 Grade 10 Physics

e.g. For the given position-time graph, describe the motion both pos (m)
numerically and descriptively. Then construct a velocity-time
graph for the same motion. The positive is to the right. 6

Assume that the changes to the object’s velocity at t = 4 s and 4

at t = 8 s take place in a negligible amount of time.
2
• The object begins at a position 4 meters right of the reference
position. It is moving left with a constant speed. t (s)
2 4 6 8 10 12
• At a time of 2 s, it passes by the reference position, but keeps -2
going.
-4
• At a time of 4 seconds it reaches a position 4 meters left of the
reference position and immediately stops when it gets there. -6

• It remains at rest at that position for 4 seconds, at which time (t = 8 s) there is a sudden change: it is suddenly
starts moving to the right with a constant speed.

• It again passes the reference position at approximately t = 10.6 s while still moving to the right.

• It is at a position 2 meters right of the reference position at t = 12 s.

time Position at end

speed and direction displacement
interval of interval
0-2 s constant, 2 m/s [left] 4 m [left] 0m
2-4 s constant, 2 m/s [left] 4 m [left] -4 m
4-8 s constant, 0 0 -4 m
8-12 s constant, 1.5 m/s [right] 6m 2m

v (m/s)
6

t (s)
2 4 6 8 10 12
-2

-4

-6
Grade 10 Physics Page 53

e.g. For the given velocity-time graph, describe the motion both v (m/s)
numerically and descriptively. Then construct a position-time
graph for the same motion. “Right” should be taken as 6
positive.
4
Note: the object had an initial position of -10 m. Assume that
the changes to the object’s acceleration at t = 3 s, t = 6 s, and 2
at t = 8 s take place in a negligible amount of time.
t (s)
2 4 6 8 10 12
• Object begins (t = 0 ) at a position of 10 m left of reference
position. It has a constant velocity to the right, which it -2
maintains for 3 seconds.
-4
• At t = 3 s it begins to slow down with a constant leftward
acceleration which it maintains for 3 s. -6

• At t = 4 s it momentarily stopped moving, but as the acceleration continued, it immediately started to speed
up while moving left.

• It reaches a maximum speed of 4 m/s, moving left at t = 6 s, but then starts to slow down, as its acceleration
suddenly changes to a new (but again constant) acceleration to the right, which it maintains for an additional
2 seconds, by which time it is moving right at 4 m/s.

• It then stops accelerating, and maintains a velocity of 4 m/s to the right for an additional 4 s.

Time Position at End of

Speed and Direction of Velocity Displacement Acceleration
Interval Interval
0-3 s constant 2 m/s [right] 6m -4 m 0
3-4 s slowing down from 2 m/s to 0 [right] 1m -3 m - 2m/s2
4-6 s speeding up from 0 to 4 m/s [left] -4 m -7 m - 2m/s2
6-7 s slowing down from 4 m/s to 0 [left] -2 m -9 m 4 m/s 2
7-8 s speeding up from 0 to 4 m/s [right] 2m -7 m 4 m/s
8-12 s constant 4 m/s [right] 16 m 9m 0

pos (m)
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
t (s)
2 4 6 8 10 12
-2
-4
-6
-8
-10
Page 54 Grade 10 Physics

v (m/s) pos (m)

6 6

4 4

2 2

t (s) t (s)
2 4 6 8 10 12 2 4 6 8 10 12
-2 -2

-4 -4

-6 -6
3) object begins at a position of -3 m 4)

v (m/s) pos (m)

6 6

4 4

2 2

t (s) t (s)
2 4 6 8 10 12 2 4 6 8 10 12

-2 -2

-4 -4

-6 -6
5) object begins at reference position 6)

v (m/s)
pos (m)
6
12
4
8
2
4
t (s) t (s)
2 4 6 8 10 12 2 4 6 8 10 12
-2 -4

-4 -8

-12
-6
7) object begins at position -10 m 8)
Grade 10 Physics Page 55

Motion Graphs Worksheet - Tables

(note: #1 and #2 were done as examples)

3.

time interval dir of motion speed is ... displacement acceleration is

pos at end (m)
(s) (L or R) (inc/dec/const) (m) (m/s2)

0-3
3-4.5
4.5-6
6-9
9-10
10-12

4.

dir of motion
time interval (s) speed is (m/s) displacement (m) pos at end (m)
(L or R)
0-4
4-8
8-12

5.

time interval dir of motion speed is ... displacement acceleration is

pos at end (m)
(s) (L or R) (inc/dec/const) (m) (m/s2)

0-3
3-6
6-8
8-12
Page 56 Grade 10 Physics

6.

dir of motion
time interval (s) speed is (m/s) displacement (m) pos at end (m)
(L or R)
0-3
3-4
4-8
8-12

time interval dir of motion speed is ... displacement acceleration is

pos at end (m)
(s) (L or R) (inc/dec/const) (m) (m/s2)

0-2
2-3
3-5
5-6
6-7
7-8
8-9
9-10
10-12

dir of motion
time interval (s) speed is (m/s) displacement (m) pos at end (m)
(L or R)
0-3
3-5
5-6
6-12