Unit 1 Blog Post

In Unit one of Physics we mostly learned about velocity, speed, acceleration, force and how they compare, contrast and interact. Speed, velocity and acceleration are very similar tops with specific defining details. Speed is simply the distance traveled over a certain time period. Speed however is not classified by direction. Velocity on the other hand is distance over time in a specific direction. Acceleration is the change in distance traveled over time. When accelerating you can expect to cut the travel time short, and the opposite for decelerating. After learning the basics definitions of these terms we challenged to throw them together and answer questions to more in depth understand them. We came to answer like, while having constant velocity you can't have constant acceleration or accelerate at all due to the constant speed and direction you are traveling in. The four equations for acceleration are... 

• V=at 
• d= 0.5(a)(t)^2 
• a=V2-V1/t 
• a= v/t 

In the second equation above "0.5(a)" represents the speed. In class we used ramps to compare the trends of acceleration and velocity. On any given ramp when a ball is traveling down the balls' velocity will always be increasing.  

• In the top left the velocity is increasing, while the acceleration is decreasing
• In the left middle the velocity is increasing and the acceleration is constant
• In the bottom the velocity and acceleration are 0m/s(s^2)
• Middle right the velocity is increasing and the acceleration is increasing as well

These are just some examples of the ways velocity and acceleration interact. When an object is at constant velocity it is at equilibrium meaning all forces around it are equal, but I will get to that later.

Another thing we learned was Newton's first law. Newton's law states that; an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acting on by a strong enough outer force. Example; When you are in a car moving at a relatively fast speed and come to an abrupt stop you will notice your body jolt forward. This is because your body is in motion while the car is moving and when the car stops your body does not want to stop so you jolt forward until your seatbelt creates enough force to stop you. The second part of Newton'w first law states that; an object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted on by a strong enough outer force. Example; when leaving coffee on the trunk of a car and quickly driving away you will notice your cup will fall directly below where it was sitting. This is because the cup was at rest and would like to stay at rest so it will fall directly below it's previous location. 

Now back to Equilibrium. When an object is at equilibrium the forces acting upon it add up to a net force of 0. Force is measured in Newtons(N). Example; If Kokayi is pushing a box with 50N of force and I am pushing the box from the other side with 50N of force, the box will have a net force of 0 and will be equilibrium. However, if i raise my force to anything less or more than 50N of force there will be no equilibrium and the net force will be greater than 0. It requires more force to move to objects with higher inertia. Objects with more inertia have more mass. Example a care has more inertia than a chair, so it would take more force to move a car rather than a chair.  

This video should explain everything we currently need to know about inertia and Newton's First Law.