So what is a force?A force is really just a push or a pull on an object. It occurs when two objects interact with each other. Forces can be contact forces, meaning that the objects have to actually touch. Or they can be at a distance, think along the lines of magnets or gravity. A force is still present but the objects are at a distance. It helps most to think about forces in terms of balance. You might hear the terms balanced or unbalanced forces. Just as with velocity, we split forces into...

Let’s forget the math today and focus on Newton’s Laws.Newton was a mathematician and physicist born in the 1600s. He existed, taught and studied well before many of our modern discoveries had been made, but his impacts are still felt today. Most importantly, for us, in this Laws of Motion.There are 3 Laws of Motion. All have to do with force and how an object experiences force. The First Law is commonly referred to as the Law of Inertia. This law states that an object at rest stays at rest...

However, we don’t always just move objects at a parallel to the ground. More often than not, we move them at an angle. Think about your field goal kickers on a football field or a missile being launched. These objects move up, peak and then come down.We say that they follow a trajectory. They exhibit parabolic motion. The objects peak and then they fall. They are projectiles.There are many important things about this motion. First, lets focus on that angled launch. Remember how last time we...

I promised an exciting episode that would take us into a whole new dimension.Let’s start talking projectile motion → the movement of objects that break beyond just one dimension and instead travel both horizontally and vertically.We are going to discuss objects that move down and sideways today. It is the easiest way to begin talking about projectiles. Imagine a cannon on the top of a cliff, shooting a cannon ball out. The ball travels horizontally out of the cannon, but eventually starts to...

An important thing to keep in mind as we discuss upward vertical motion → we are talking about objects launching straight up into the air. Ideally, without wind or disproportionate weight or any other factors, an object launched upward from the ground would move in a straight line. That is the type of motion we are dealing with here.Two weeks ago we added an element to our motion repertoire: vertical motion.We started talking about motion in terms of falling - it just seemed easier to start...

Last week we listened to the start of a new idea. We expanded on motion and are now talking about up and down → vertical motion.We spent a lot of time getting accustomed to objects moving - where they are, how fast they move, what direction that movement is inAnd now we’re applying it to objects that are withstanding the force of gravity.Last week I gave you two equations → the first one was simple. It says v is equal to Vo (initial velocity) + a times t. (acceleration times time)The other...

We are going to spend the next episodes talking about TWO dimensional motion. UP & left, down & right. We are adding a whole new dimension to motionBefore we do that,We are going to check off one more type of one dimensional motion → vertical motion. Motion that is UP or DOWN.When we start to talk about vertical motion we have to worry about gravity.If you throw a ball up into the air, what happens? It goes up and up, but eventually it comes back down.Link:...

We are wrapping up one dimensional motion today with all of the key ideas covered. We’ve talked about distance and displacement, speed and velocity and last week we talked about acceleration as the rate of change of the velocity over time.We talked about how positive acceleration means the velocity is increasing, the object is speeding up, and negative acceleration means the velocity is decreasing, the object is slowing down.And then, I left you with a few challenge questions... I asked you...

Let’s get to it.Acceleration is the rate of change of an object's velocity. It is how the velocity changes. When car companies brag about how quickly their vehicles go from 0 to 60, they are talking about the acceleration.They are talking about how quickly their car's velocity can change from 0 mph to 60 mph.Objects don’t just stay at a constant velocity, always moving at 2 m/s. They speed up and slow down. That change from 2 m/s to 10 m/s as an object speeds up or from 2 m/s to 1 m/s as the...

Let’s get to it. Acceleration is the rate of change of an objects velocity. It is how the velocity changes. When car companies brag about how quickly their vehicles go from 0 to 60, they are talking about the acceleration.They are talking about how quickly their cars velocity can change from 0 mph to 60 mph. Objects don’t just stay at a constant velocity, always moving at 2 m/s. They speed up and slow down. That change from 2 m/s to 10 m/s as an object speeds up or from 2 m/s to 1 m/s as the...

How do we discuss HOW FAST an object moves?Let’s start with speed:SPEED is the rate at which an object covers ground.If you’re a math head like me:SPEED is distance divided by time , the distance an object travels in a unit of time.If you are driving 70 mph → you can cover 70 miles in one hour . . . if you are going at a constant speed.

If you didnt listen to my last episode on Distance vs Displacement - give that one a listen for a little bit of context on how we talk about movement. In the last episode we determined that there are two different ways to talk about how much an object moves - distance or displacement.Distance is the total ground covered by an object and displacement is the difference between an objects FINAL and INITIAL position. These are going to be important definitions to keep in mind as we continue...

Let's start off by discussing the idea of movement.What is movement?How can someone move?Do we care about direction?Do we care how fast someone is going?If we really want to start off with the basics, then lets answer this question today:How much does an object move?We have 2 different ways to answer this question and that is where distance vs displacement comes into play.