1. This document discusses concepts related to speed, velocity, and acceleration including: how to determine if something is moving and how fast it is moving; units used to measure speed; calculations involving speed, distance, and time; displacement vs distance; and acceleration. 2. It provides examples of speed, velocity, and acceleration calculations as well as graphs showing changes in velocity and acceleration over time. Readers are prompted to analyze graphs and scenarios involving motion. 3. The key ideas are that speed is how far something moves, velocity includes direction of motion, and acceleration is the change in velocity over time.

2. BE STILL.
How fast are you moving when you are sitting still?
1. How fast is the earth spinning?
2. How fast is the earth revolving around the sun?
3. How fast is the sun orbiting the Milky Way?
4. How fast is the Milky Way moving through the
Universe?

3. Discussion
1. How do you know if something is moving?
2. How do you know how FAST something is
moving?

4. Speed – Critical Thinking about UNITS
Compare the following speed measurements:
5 m/s 1 mi/s
40 mi/h 40 cm/h
100 km/day 10 km/min

5. Application: Speed Calculations
1. A car drove 120 miles in 3 hours. How fast was it
going?
2. A sprinter can run 6 m/s. How long will it take
her to run 600m?
3. You drove 50 mi/h for 8 hours. How far did you
go?

6. Application: Speed Calculations
A hungry lion is chasing a terrified zebra. The zebra
can run 500 meters in 20 seconds. The lion can run
300 meters in 15 seconds. Will the lion be able to
catch the zebra? Why or why not?

7. Application: Speed Calculations
A sky diver jumps from a plane that is flying at
an altitude (height) of 9,000 feet and falls at
180 ft/s. How long will it take him to reach
the ground if his parachute doesn’t open?

8. Determine the resultant velocity
for each of the passengers.
Airplane: 800km/h west
4km/h west5km/h east
0km/h west

9. DISTANCE vs. DISPLACEMENT
Example: A robot moves forward 3m, backwards 2m
and forwards 4m. This takes 15 seconds.
What is the average speed of the robot?
What is the average velocity of the robot?
Distance Displacement
How far something has
moved
How far something is from
its initial position

10. Application: DISPLACEMENT
A quarterback throws a football forward 25 yards. It
is caught by a receiver who runs forward 18 yards
before fumbling the ball. The defense recovers ball
and run backwards 58 yards for a touchdown. This
whole thing took 15 seconds.
What is the football’s average speed and average
velocity?

11. Acceleration
Acceleration is defined as a change in velocity.
How can velocity change? (3 ways)

13. Units?

14. Acceleration
Rocket-powered sleds are used to test the human response to
acceleration. If a rocket-powered sled is accelerated to a speed of
283 m/s in 1.4 seconds, then what is the acceleration of the sled?

15. Acceleration
A car traveling at 22.4 m/s skids to a stop in 2.55 s. What is the
acceleration of the car?

16. What does the
graph say about an
object’s motion at
line segments A, B, C
and D?
A
B
C
D

17. What does the
graph say about an
object’s motion at
line segments A, B, C
and D?
What is the speed of
the object at line
segments A, B, C
and D?
A
B
C
D

18. What does the
graph say about an
object’s motion at
line segments A, B,
and C?

19. What does the
graph say about an
object’s motion at
line segments A, B,
and C?
What is the
acceleration of the
object at line
segments A, B, and
C?

20. The graph
represents the
motion of a bus.
Describe the
motion of the bus
at each line
segment.

21. Graphing Practice:
Time Time
Velocity
Position

22. Car 2
Car 1
CER – What is the motion of the cars* that left
these drops of oil on the road?
*Assume each car drips oil at a constant rate.