Can Anyone Please explain the Displacement vs Time graph and Velocity vs Time graph

[canuli]

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I start the studying for MCAT today after recoveing from knee injury and started with the physics. I am having a hard time intrepreting displacement vs time and velcity vs time graph... I know there is alot of smart pre-meds that would be willing to take a moment to please explain.

Thanks 😕

 

[SamDC]

I start the studying for MCAT today after recoveing from knee injury and started with the physics. I am having a hard time intrepreting displacement vs time and velcity vs time graph... I know there is alot of smart pre-meds that would be willing to take a moment to please explain.

Thanks 😕

Displacement versus time graphs are exactly that: your displacement from a fixed point of reference as a function of time. Remember, displacement is a vector (has magnitude AND direction), which means that at some given time, you've displaced (a straight line from where you started to where you currently are) yourself from the origin (unless you're at the origin that your displacement is zero because you're back to where you started).

Velocity is also a vector and is the rate of change of displacement.

The important to realize is that:

Displacement and velocity ---> VECTORS (magnitude and direction)

Distance and speed ---> SCALARS (magnitude only)

Acceleration ---> almost always a VECTOR but depends on the context it's being used in.

 

[KitEKatEli]

Examkrackers' Physics review book has a good review of these graphs with pictures, which I can't put up here. If you don't have it and don't want to buy it, you could try your local Barnes & Noble and look at it on the cheap. But if you're really struggling with physics in general, I would recommend their book.

 

[Kussemek]

Based on what TPR has said, all you need to be able to do is understand and interpret that:
1) The slope of a position v. time graph gives the velocity.
2) The slope of the velocity v. time graph gives the acceleration.
3) The area under the curve of the velocity v time graph is the displacement.