Motion Basics
Distance an object travels per unit of time.
What is speed?
A push or pull acting on an object.
What is a force?
The law stating an object at rest stays at rest unless acted on by a force.
What is Newton’s First Law of Motion?
The amount of matter in an object.
What is mass?
Force applied over a distance in the direction of motion.
What is work?
A device that makes work easier by changing force or distance.
What is a machine?
A wave that requires a medium to travel.
What is a mechanical wave?
Speed equals distance divided by this quantity.
What is time?
Speed that includes direction.
What is velocity?
Forces that cancel out and do not cause motion.
What are balanced forces?
This law explains why seatbelts are necessary in a car.
What is Newton’s First Law of Motion?
The force of gravity acting on an object.
What is weight?
The rate at which work is done.
What is power?
The ratio of output force to input force.
What is mechanical advantage?
A wave that does not require a medium.
What is an electromagnetic wave?
A car travels 100 meters in 5 seconds.
What is 20 m/s?
The change in position from start to finish, including direction.
What is displacement?
The force that opposes motion between two surfaces in contact.
What is friction?
The law that states force equals mass times acceleration.
What is Newton’s Second Law of Motion?
The product of mass and velocity.
What is momentum?
Energy an object has because it is moving.
What is kinetic energy?
A machine made of two or more simple machines.
What is a compound machine?
The highest point of a transverse wave.
What is a crest?
Force equals mass multiplied by this quantity.
What is acceleration?
The speed of an object at one exact moment in time.
What is instantaneous speed?
Friction that helps you walk or grip objects.
What is helpful friction?
The law that explains action-reaction force pairs.
What is Newton’s Third Law of Motion?
When air resistance balances gravity, this occurs.
What is terminal velocity?
Stored energy due to position or height.
What is potential energy?
The point where a lever pivots.
What is a fulcrum?
The distance between two identical points on a wave.
What is wavelength?
Work equals force multiplied by this quantity.
What is distance?
The object or place used to determine whether something is in motion.
What is a reference point?
Friction that wastes energy and slows machines down.
What is unwanted friction?
The force that attracts all objects with mass toward each other.
What is gravity (Universal Law of Gravitation)?
A situation where gravity is the only force acting on an object.
What is freefall?
Output work divided by input work, usually shown as a percent.
What is efficiency?
A simple machine that uses a rope and wheel to lift objects.
What is a pulley?
The change in frequency due to motion of the source or observer.
What is the Doppler effect?
A wave with a frequency of 2 Hz has this period.
What is 0.5 seconds?