Colegio de San Gabriel Arcangel
PACUCOA Accredited – Level 1 Status
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
City of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan
LEARNING ACTIVITY 4
Name: ________________________________ Grade / Score : _______________
Track: _______________________________ Strand : ________________________
Subject Title: _________________________ Date : _________________________
Type of Activity (Check or choose from below)
Concept Notes Laboratory Report Formal Theme Others:
Skills: Exercise / Drill Illustration Informal Theme ____________
Activity Title : Motion in Uniform Acceleration
Learning Target : I can convert a verbal description of a physical situation involving
uniform acceleration in one dimension into a mathematical
description.
: I can interpret displacement and velocity, respectively, as areas under
velocity vs. time and acceleration vs. time curves.
: I can interpret velocity and acceleration, respectively, as slopes of
position vs. time and velocity vs. time curves.
References : Teaching Guide for SHS General Physics 1
(Author, Title, Pages) : Commission on Higher Education & Philippine Normal University
Discussion
What we have here is a verbal description of a car’s motion. If we are going to transform it into
mathematical expression, we will have:
Situation Mathematical Expression
The car moves with a rightward acceleration v1 > 0 ; +a
Then, the car remains at rest for several second v2 = 0
Finally, the car moves with a low constant speed 0 < v3 < v1 ; a = 0
Below are other examples.
The verbal descriptions were underlined in the statement, and it was illustrated below in various
mathematical and vector expressions.
Refer to the table below for more examples.
Verbal Expression Mathematical Equivalent Remarks
at rest
stops
v = 0 m/s v is velocity
immobile
non-motile
initially at rest
vi = 0 m/s vi is initial velocity
starts at rest
came to a stop
vf = 0 m/s vf is final velocity
slows down to a stop
constant speed/velocity
constant speed/velocity a = 0 m/s2 a is acceleration
unchanging speed/velocity
speeds up
Positive
accelerates +a
acceleration
increase in speed/velocity
slows down
Negative
decelerates -a
acceleration
decrease in speed/velocity
Knowing how to interpret these verbal descriptions is
very important in dealing with problems in kinematics
which involves motion.
Let’s study the graph below.
The graph shows the velocity of an object per unit of
time. Noticed that the object maintains a velocity of
6 m/s for 5 seconds.
The area under a velocity graph represents the
displacement of the object. To see why, consider the
following graph of motion that shows an object
maintaining a constant velocity of 6 meters per second
for a time of 5 seconds. Now we're going to show that
this was equivalent to finding the area under the curve.
Consider the rectangle of area made by the graph as
seen here.
The area of this rectangle can be found by multiplying
height of the rectangle, 6 m/s, times its width, 5 s,
which would give:
Area = height×width = 6 m/s × 5 s = 30 m
This is the same answer we got before for the displacement. The area under a velocity curve,
regardless of the shape, will equal the displacement during that time interval.
Let’s study this situation that explain how to deal with a curve graph.
Example: A windsurfer is traveling along a straight
line, and her motion is given by the velocity graph here.
Select all of the following statements that are true about
the speed and acceleration of the windsurfer.
(A) Speed is increasing
(B) Acceleration is increasing
(C) Speed is decreasing
(D) Acceleration is decreasing
Options A, speed increasing, and D, acceleration decreasing,
are both true. The slope of a velocity graph is the acceleration.
Since the slope of the curve is decreasing and becoming less steep
this means that the acceleration is also decreasing.
It might seem counterintuitive, but the windsurfer is speeding up for this entire graph. The value
of the graph, which represents the velocity, is increasing for the entire motion shown, but the
amount of increase per second is getting smaller. For the first 4.5 seconds, the speed increased
from 0 m/s to about 5 m/s, but for the second 4.5 seconds, the speed increased from 5 m/s to only
about 7 m/s.
Let’s Practice!
A Go-Kart is travelling with a constant velocity of 6 m/s for 3 seconds. Afterwards, it
constantly decreases in velocity until it came to a stop for 4 seconds.
o Construct a velocity-time graph
o Determine the acceleration at t = 0-3s.
o Determine the acceleration at t = 3s-7s.
o Determine the displacement at t = 0-3s.
o Determine the displacement at t = 3s-7s.
Let’s Assess
Refer to the graph presented.
1. By t = 0 s, we can say that the object is… D
a. Moving at increasing velocity
b. Moving at constant velocity
c. Moving at decreasing velocity
d. At rest
2. In which timeframes did the object has an B
increase in velocity?
a. t = 0s – 3s
b. t = 0s – 9s
c. t = 9s – 18 s
d. t = 18s – infinity
3. What is the acceleration of the object at 9s B
– 18 s?
a. 0.33 m/s2
b. 0.67 m/s2
c. 0.0 m/s2
d. Infinite
4. What is the acceleration of the object at t = C
9s – 18 s?
a. 0.33 m/s2
b. 0.67 m/s2
c. 0.0 m/s2
d. Infinite
5. What is the displacement of the object from A
t = 9s – 18 s?
a. 54 m
b. 81 m
c. 40.5 m
d. 20.25 m
