{"id":306,"date":"2018-08-07T20:32:07","date_gmt":"2018-08-07T20:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/louisville-wm-physics\/?post_type=chapter&p=306"},"modified":"2019-07-17T15:12:09","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T15:12:09","slug":"why-it-matters-average-kinematics","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/louisville-wm-physics\/chapter\/why-it-matters-average-kinematics\/","title":{"raw":"Why It Matters: Average Kinematics","rendered":"Why It Matters: Average Kinematics"},"content":{"raw":"Ideally, we would always know where an object is located and how it is moving at every point in time.\u00a0However, the motion of an object may be incredibly complicated, so that describing the position or velocity of an object at all points in time in an equation might be difficult it not impossible.\u00a0 It may also be the case that we just don\u2019t have enough information to describe the motion of an object at any point in time we want.\u00a0 We may only know how an object is moving at several distinct points in time.\u00a0 Instead of being able to watch a movie which shows how an object moves, we only have a limited number of snapshots when we know where the object is and what is its velocity.\r\n\r\nSo how can we describe the motion of an object if we don\u2019t have an equation that tells us how it is moving at every point in time?\u00a0 We can describe how the object is moving on average<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t know what an object\u2019s motion is at every point in time, we can still report how the object\u2019s position and velocity have changed between two points in time.\u00a0 We can then use the change in position and change in velocity vectors to calculate the object\u2019s average velocity or average acceleration over a time interval.","rendered":"

Ideally, we would always know where an object is located and how it is moving at every point in time.\u00a0However, the motion of an object may be incredibly complicated, so that describing the position or velocity of an object at all points in time in an equation might be difficult it not impossible.\u00a0 It may also be the case that we just don\u2019t have enough information to describe the motion of an object at any point in time we want.\u00a0 We may only know how an object is moving at several distinct points in time.\u00a0 Instead of being able to watch a movie which shows how an object moves, we only have a limited number of snapshots when we know where the object is and what is its velocity.<\/p>\n

So how can we describe the motion of an object if we don\u2019t have an equation that tells us how it is moving at every point in time?\u00a0 We can describe how the object is moving on average<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t know what an object\u2019s motion is at every point in time, we can still report how the object\u2019s position and velocity have changed between two points in time.\u00a0 We can then use the change in position and change in velocity vectors to calculate the object\u2019s average velocity or average acceleration over a time interval.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

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Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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