We went over two key pieces of information that can be learned from motion graphs. We did this with a worksheet called "Slopes and Areas" that is available on the Documents Tab. There is a great summary of these motion graphs at this website: The Physics Hypertextbook.
Key piece of information #1: On a position-time graph...
- Average velocity is the slope of the straight line connecting the endpoints of the curve.
- Instantaneous velocity is the slope of the line tangent to a curve at any point.
Key piece of information #2: On a velocity-time graph...
- Displacement (or the change in position of the object) equals the area under the v-t curve.
You have HW this weekend! Check the documents page.