AP Physics 1.1-1.5 vocab – college physics, knight/jones/field

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