11.1.2: One-Dimensional Kinematics

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Motion along a straight line, also called one-dimensional motion, can be represented in a number of different ways: as a formula, as a graph, as data in a table, or as an animation. All four representations are useful for problem solving.

The study of motion in one, two, or three dimensions is called kinematics. What distinguishes kinematics from the techniques which we will consider later is that, at the moment, we do not care why an object is moving the way it is. We just care that it is moving the way described. Do not think that this degrades the study of kinematics. The exact opposite is true. Kinematics is powerful precisely because it is independent of the cause of the motion. We will learn to speak using the common language for describing motion irrespective of the cause.