Constant Speed Lab

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Objective: 1. Measure distance and time during constant velocity movement. 2. Calculate average velocity as the slope of a Position vs. Time graph. Theory: Before this lab we learned about displacement, velocity, vector, and scalar. Displacement can be describes as the shortest distance between the starting point and the ending point or the distance between the starting point and ending point. Velocity is the speed of something in one direction. A vector is when the velocity of an object has a magnitude and a direction compared to scalar when the objects velocity is only measured in magnitude. The difference between displacement and total distance is how far you traveled from the starting point. For example if I ran 30 meters in one direction and came back 25 meters my displacement is 5 meters but total distance is 55 meters. To find the total distance you find out how far the object went in all directions. Another example of this would be when a runner runs the 400m. Once around the track is 400m so the total displacement from the starting line to finish line is 0m but the runner still ran the 400m so the total distance is 400m. Speed and Velocity are different because they are used for two different things, Even though they measure how fast something is going it is used in different situations. When you want to see how fast you went in one direction you use velocity because velocity is a vector quantity. When you want to measure how fast you are going even after you make a change in direction you use speed because speed is a scalar quantity. The slope on a Distance vs. Time Graph is based on a scalar quantity and is used to judge speed because it has a magnitude and direction. The slope also represents the speed in the distance traveled over a certain time. To find the slope you can measure the distance the object has traveled every second similar to like
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