In physics class we talked about motion maps. At first, they were a little complicated, but as soon as I started doing more examples, I quickly got the hang of it!
We first learned about motion maps through doing a lab with motion detectors. The lab gave us the position vs. time part, and we had to act out the movement in front of the sensor. After we got the trend on the computer, we drew
the motion maps. The packet started off fairly easy, but then proceeded to get more challenging as I got to the end of the packet. My group was confused mostly when the lines started to go all over the place on the graph. We didn't know how to act out the motion. After getting help from Mr. Battlagia and other groups we were able to work through it line by line!
Here are some motion maps-
In this example the object is moving in a positive direction at a constant speed. The arrows are going right because the object is moving in a positive direction. If the object was moving in a negative direction, then the arrows would be moving to the left. We established in class that the dots represented the object and the arrows represent velocity. Velocity is the speed and direction in which an object is going. If the object was traveling at a very fast speed, then the arrow would be longer than if the object was moving at a slower speed.
Here's another motion map-
This is a more complicated motion map. The object moved to the right and then stops and then moves to the left. The orange arrows were moving at a faster velocity than the yellow because they have a longer arrow. The yellow arrows are moving at a slower velocity. Their arrows are shorter. Dots stacked on top of each other represent a stopped object.
Another example-
In this example both objects are moving at the same velocity (yellow and the black arrows). The only difference is the yellow arrow started farther up than the black arrow.
Well, that pretty much wraps it up for
motion maps. In my upcoming blogs I'll be discussing velocity vs. time and position vs. time graphs!
