Motion graphs and acceleration - Intro

One line on a graph can hand you a speed, an acceleration or a distance. Which one you get depends on the graph you're reading. It also depends on what you do with the line: take its gradient, which is its steepness, or find the area underneath it. Chapter one put a number on how fast something moves. This chapter, Motion graphs and acceleration, draws that motion, and a lot of the motion work later in the course builds on it.

If motion graphs are new to you, start with Distance-time graphs. It's the graph the rest of the chapter builds on.

Examiner reports show most students describing how the line looks when they're asked what its gradient means, and that's the question that video answers. Speed at an instant from a tangent comes next, and it's Higher tier. Not every board sets it at all. If you sit Foundation, or your course leaves it out, skip it, because nothing later in the chapter needs it. If acceleration is the part that's shaky, start with Acceleration and velocity-time graphs. A velocity-time graph looks a lot like the first graph of the chapter, but it tells you something different. A common error in examiner reports is reading a flat stretch of a velocity-time graph as the object standing still. That video puts the two graphs next to each other and says what a flat line means on each. Distance from the area under a velocity-time graph builds straight on that one. In one examiner report, the majority of students didn't see that the area is the distance, and reached for an equation instead. Some boards set the area at Higher tier only, while others set it at both tiers, so it's worth checking your own specification. If it's the sums you're after, go to The uniform acceleration equation, v squared minus u squared equals two a s. Most marks lost on it in examiner reports go on the very last step, and that video takes every sum through to the end. You can find any video on this list by searching its name or its code. The quickest way is the scholafly.com website, which indexes every video in every subject.

Next in the chapter is Distance-time graphs. Hopefully that's next in your feed, but if not, search for ScholaFly P H oh two, oh one.

Every other video is on scholafly.com too, easy to search by video code or by keyword. Whatever you're revising, go there and have a look, or, watch the next video.