PHYS 1P21 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: One Direction, Blue Arrow, Dimensional Analysis

• School: Brock University
• Department: Physics
• Course: PHYS 1P21
• Professor: Santo D' Agostino

Document Summary

Kinematics: mathematical description of motion (ch 2, ch 3) Some of the quantities that we use to describe motion mathematically have magnitudes and directions; these are called vector quantities. Some of the quantities that we use to describe motion mathematically have only magnitudes, with no directionality; these are called scalar quantities. Example: an object moves along a straight line with initial position 9 m and final position 2 m. The displacement can be represented by the blue arrow in the figure above. Note that the arrow points to the left, which corresponds to the fact that the displacement is negative. For a positive displacement, the arrow would point to the right. If the line of motion is oriented differently (north-south, for example, or in some other direction), then it"s up to you to choose a positive direction along the line; the other direction is therefore negative.