Speed: distance traveled over time
Position: The location of an object relative to a reference point
Displacement: Change in position
Distance: total amount of travel
Over the past few weeks we've been trying to understand velocity. As you see from above, velocity is speed in a direction. One of the huge questions our class ran into was if it is possible to go from a Position VS Time graph to a Velocity VS Time graph. The answer is yes. Imagine a velocity graph with the velocity of 4 and time increasing by one second. Now imagine a position graph with time increasing by 1 second as well. So, since the velocity is 4, the graph will increase by 4 every second. Also let's say you have position graph, and your position is 12 feet at 3 seconds, if you do the math velocity would be 4. We also discussed you don't have to be at your reference point/position for your velocity to be 0.
In the graph above you see that position increases 5 meters every second. Your velocity would be 5 up until 5 seconds. I found that by dividing position by time. After 5 seconds your velocity would be 0, since there is no change in position.
Other things we discussed:
New Class Rule: Don't use X or Y to identify the axis' because in the scientific world X represents position and it's just confusing.
Position, displacement, and distance can all be different. If i'm being completely honest, i'm still a bit confused on displacement.
Distance: 200 meters
Position: 0 meters (from reference/starting point)
Displacement: Would it be 0 or 40? Or am I completely wrong and it's something else? Honestly my confusion is coming from not being completely clear on whether we're measuring change in position from the reference point (0) or change in position from the previous time interval (the difference between the change in position from 40 seconds to 50 seconds).
EDIT: Today in class my question was answered. So, that means the displacement would be 0.
