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Kinematics Review Worksheet
The following questions will help you to review previous concepts in kinematics, a branch of
physics that deals with the study of objects in motion. It is expected and assumed that you are
comfortable with the following concepts. If you are having some difficulty, please consult with
me as early as possible.
The page numbers and questions below refer to the Nelson 11 textbook, which will be made
available in electronic form for this course.
For all calculations, please show your steps.
Scalar and Vector Quantities (p.6, and p.12)
1. What is the difference between a scalar and a vector quantity?
2. Provide two examples of a scalar quantity, and two examples of a vector quantity:
3. Circle which measurements are scalar quantities:
a. 12ms
b. 3.2m[up]
c. 15cm
d. 500 MHz
e. 100 km/h [west]
f. 50 mL
Average Speed (p.7)
4. Provide a word definition for average speed in YOUR OWN words.
5. What is the symbol definition for average speed? (i.e. the formula)
6. Is average speed a scalar or vector quantity? Why?
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7. What are the different units that we typically use to measure average speed?
8. Assume that the ironman marathon record is
4h 20min 15s. Determine the average speed
of this 100 km race. Express your answer in m/s.
9. A rat in a maze travels 252 cm total from where it is released before finding the exit. The
time it takes the rat to finish is 4 minutes. Calculate the average speed of the electrons in
m/s.
Average Velocity (p.13-14)
10. Provide a word definition for average velocity in YOUR OWN words.
11. What is the symbol definition for average velocity? (i.e. the formula)
12. Is average velocity a scalar or vector quantity? Why?
13. What are the different units that we typically use to measure average velocity?
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14. What is the definition of displacement?
15. How is displacement different from distance?
16. If a dog, initially at a position 2m [South] of its owner, runs to retrieve a stick that is 30m
[North] of its owner. What displacement does the dog need in in order to reach the stick?
17. What is the dog’s final position in reference to the owner?
18. What is the difference between average speed and average velocity?
19. While running on his hands, an athlete sprinted 35.0 m [fwd] in a record 12.5s. Determine
the average velocity for this feat.
20. At the snail racing championship in England, the winner moved at an average velocity of 3.8
mm/s [fwd] for 137 s. Determine the winning snail’s displacement (in mm) during this time
interval.
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21. The women’s record for the top windsurfing speed is 25.8 m/s. Assuming that this speed
remains constant, how long would it take the record holder to move 128 m [fwd]?
Average Acceleration (p.25-28)
22. Provide a word definition for average acceleration in YOUR OWN words.
23. What is the symbol definition for average acceleration? (i.e. the formula)
24. Is average acceleration a scalar or vector quantity? Why?
25. What are the different units that we typically use to measure average acceleration?
26. A soccer player starting from rest and undergoing uniform acceleration reaches a velocity of
7.0 m/s [fwd] in 6.2 s. Find the average acceleration of the soccer player.
27. Rewrite the equation for average acceleration to solve for the following:
a. Final velocity
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b. Initial velocity
c. Time interval
28. A boy launches a toy rocket from his backyard. The rocket’s upward velocity increased from
10m/s to 100m/s, with an average acceleration of magnitude 4.1 m/s2. How long did the
acceleration last?
Graphing Uniform Motion (p.14-15)
29. On the graph paper provided sketch a position-time graph for the following scenario:
assume that Mr G, the fastest teacher at CIC, runs 11 m straight South each second for 12.0s.
Hint, it may be helpful to create a data table for the x values (time) and y values
(displacement) in your graph.
b. Calculate the slope of the graph. What does this value represent?
30. One another section of the graph paper, sketch a velocity-time graph for the same scenario
b. Calculate the slope of this graph:
31. Consider an object that starts from rest, and then accelerates West with an average
acceleration of 5.0 m/s2. Draw the velocity-time graph on another sheet of graph paper.
b. Calculate the area between the line and the x-axis of this graph. What does this value
represent?
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