IPC Unit 1: Motion

During this Unit

This unit focuses on graphing and calculating the directly observable properties of motion. Students will describe, measure, and/or calculate displacement, distance, speed, velocity, time, and acceleration. One way students will represent and derive the properties of motion is by creating distance over time graphs and analyzing the slope, which represents the trends in speed. Students will also create speed over time graphs and analyze the slope, which represents the trends in acceleration.

 

Misconceptions:

  • Students may think the location of an object can be described by stating its distance from a given point, ignoring direction.

  • Students may think the distance an object travels and its displacement are always the same, rather than displacement being a change in position per time ratio.

  • Students may think if an object has a speed of zero (even instantaneously), it has no acceleration; students may disregard the idea of tossing an object upward and the object reaching a speed of zero just prior to falling, while the object is experiencing the constant acceleration of gravity the entire time it is in the air.

  • Students may think if an object is accelerating, then the object is speeding up, rather than any change in motion resulting in acceleration.

  • Students may think speed and velocity are the same thing, rather than velocity including direction.

 

Key Content Vocabulary:

  • Acceleration – change in speed and / or direction of an object’s motion

  • Displacement – a vector quantity which measures the shortest distance between an object’s initial and final position

  • Position – the location of an object at any given time

  • Speed – the distance of an object moves per period of time

 

Related Vocabulary:

  • Average speed

  • Constant speed

  • Dependent variable

  • Distance

  • Independent variable

  • Instantaneous speed

  • Motion

  • Reference point

  • Slope

  • Speed

  • Time

  • Velocity

 

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