AP Physics 1.1-1.5 vocab – college physics, knight/jones/field
Unlock all answers in this set
Unlock answersquestion
motion
answer
the change of an object's position or orientation with time
question
trajectory
answer
the path along which an object moves, which might be a straight line or might be curved
question
motion diagram
answer
the composite image, showing an object's positions at several equally spaced instants of time
question
operational definition
answer
the concepts are defined in terms of a particular procedure or operation
question
particle
answer
an object that can be represented as a mass at a single point in space
question
model
answer
simplification of reality
question
particle model
answer
simplification in which we treat a moving object as if all of its mass were concentrated at a single point
question
position
answer
your location at a particular instant in time
question
origin
answer
fixed reference point
question
coordinate system
answer
an origin and an axis marked in both the positive and negative direction-can be used to unambiguously locate the position of an object
question
coordinate
answer
the symbol that represents a position along an axis
question
displacement
answer
change of position
question
uniform motion
answer
an object that is moving at a constant speed, the object is neither speeding up or slowing down
question
speed
answer
the ratio of the distance an object travels to the time interval over which it travels or the measure of how fast an object is moving
question
velocity
answer
the ratio of the displacement of an object to the time interval over which the displacement occurs
question
scalar quantity
answer
When a physical quantity is described by a single number (with a unit).
question
vector quantity
answer
quantity that has both a size (How far? or How fast?) and a direction (Which way?)
question
magnitude
answer
size or length of a vector (cannot be negative)
