HOW THINGS MOVE

CHAPTER 3

ARISTOTELIAN
PHYSICS
Everything

on Earth made of (mixture of) four

elements:
- earth, water, air, fire
Every element has a natural place:
Earth at center of Earth,
Water above Earth,
Air above Water,
Fire above air;
Celestial bodies (stars, planets, Moon) made from 5 th
element, ether
Two kinds of motion on Earth:
-Natural motion: happens by itself - things tend to
move towards their natural place (stone falls, fires
rises).
-Violent motion: needs effort (external push or

PROBLEMS WITH ARISTOTELIAN

PHYSICS
Galileo Galilei's used scientific method:
Falling bodies:
According to Aristoteles, heavy bodies
(contain more earth element) fall faster
than lighter bodies
Observation: fall equally fast if they have
same shape and size .
Galilei: difference in speed of differently
shaped
falling
bodies
due
to
air
resistance .

Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)

New methods introduced by Galileo
include:
Controlled experiments designed
to test specific hypotheses
Idealizations to eliminate any
side effects that might obscure
main effects
Limiting the scope of enquiry consider only one question at a
time;
Quantitative
methods
did
careful measurements of the
motion of falling bodies

Ball rolling on inclined plane

Ball rolling down inclined plane speeds up;
Ball rolling up slows down; rate of slowing down

depends on steepness of incline: less steep

longer distance traveled
Extrapolation to zero slope of incline: ball will go
on forever

From observations and thought

experiments, generalizes to two new laws:

LAW OF INERTIA:

Without external influence (force) acting on it, a

body will not change its speed or direction of
motion
It will stay at rest if it was at rest
inertia = property of bodies that makes them
obey this law, their ability to maintain their
speed (or stay at rest)

LAW OF FALLING:

If air resistance is negligible, any two objects

that are dropped together will fall together.
Speed of falling independent of weight and

SPEED AND VELOCITY

Consider a car moving with

rightward (+) velocity of 10 m/s.

constant,

Position Vs Time Graphs

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/mmedia/kinema/plv.cfm

Velocity-Time Graphs

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/mmedia/kinema/pl
v.cfm

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/mmedia/kinema/tri
p.cfm

Average Speed = Distance Traveled / Time

Average Velocity = Displacement / Time
Instantaneous Speed ?

ACCELERATION
Observe the animation of the three cars below.

Which car or cars (red, green, and/or blue) are

undergoing an acceleration?

The green and the blue cars are speeding up, thus covering an
increasing distance in each second of the animation.
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/mmedia/kinema/acceln.cfm

Calculating Acceleration
The acceleration of any object is calculated using the
equation:

Example

Constant Positive Velocity

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/mmedia/kinema/cpv.cfm

Constant Negative Velocity

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/mmedia/kinema/cnv.cfm

Positive Velocity and Positive

Acceleration

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/mmedia/kinema/pvpa.cfm

Example
A blue car moving at
a constant speed of
10 m/s passes a red
car that is at rest.
The red car
accelerates from rest
at 4 m/s/s for three
seconds and then
maintains a constant
speed. The blue car
maintains a constant
speed of 10 m/s for
the entire 12
seconds. Observe the
motion and make
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/mmedia/kinema/stl.cfm
meaning of the
accompanying

Average and Instantaneous Acceleration

FALLLING OBJECTS

Example
The acceleration due to gravity is 10 m/sec 2. If an
object falls from rest, its instantaneous speed at the
end of the fifth second is
(a) 10 m/sec.
(b) 50 m/sec.
(c) 100 m/sec.
(d) 5 m/sec.
(e) impossible to determine from the given
information.
NOTE: neglect air resistance

v = a t = 10 x 5 = 50 m/s

Example
A rock is dropped from rest off of a high cliff on
another planet, planet X. There is no atmosphere,
and thus no air resistance, on planet X. At the end
of 1 second, the rock is moving at a speed of 6 m/s.
At the end of 2 seconds, it is moving at 12 m/s.
How fast will the rock be moving at 4 seconds after
being dropped?
(a) 18 m/s.
(b) 20 m/s.
(c) 24 m/s.
(d) 36 m/s.
(e) 40 m/s.

Example
On Mars, an object dropped from rest falls a
distance of 4 m in 1 second. How far will it fall in 2
second, neglecting "air" resistance on Mars?
(a) 8 m
(b) 12 m
(c)16 m
(d) 24 m
(e) 32 m.