Skip to main content

This link is exclusively for students and staff members within this organisation.

Unauthorised use will lead to account termination.

Next

The physics of falling

Thinking about motion

Particles and planets (part 1)

In this article Rick Marshall explores ideas about motion. Before our current theories were established, early thinkers had to invent ways to quantify motion and to explore the mathematical consequences of their ideas

© stokkete/stock.adobe.com

The terms in bold link to topics in the AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC and CCEA A-level specifications, as well as the IB, Pre-U and SQA exam specifications.

Thinking about motion leads to two different ways in which it can be quantified using momentum and kinetic energy. This leads to equations describing motion, the kinematic equations, sometimes called the suvat equations. Changes in motion are caused by forces. The dynamics of motion, and changes in momentum and kinetic energy, can be related to the forces acting and the distances and times over which they act through Newton’s second law.

Your organisation does not have access to this article.

Sign up today to give your students the edge they need to achieve their best grades with subject expertise

Subscribe

Next

The physics of falling

Related articles: