In these lessons, students explore the relationships between the graphs of acceleration, velocity and displacement as a function of time. The students will calculate slope and areas to express the relationships between these quantities of motion. The overall goal is for student to increase their understanding of the all important quantity of acceleration.
The unit was designed by Stephen Dickman, Jacob Kelter and Kelvin Lao for classes at Evanston Township High School.
In this lesson, you will explore the relationships between the graphs of acceleration, velocity and displacement as a function of time. In addition, you will learn some syntax of NetLogo coding by reading the code responsible for this simulation.
Just interact with the simulation. Note especially what happens when you change Ax(the acceleration). Do some of the motion graphs remind you of earlier activities in class? Which ones?
Do the dot spacings make sense in each case? What does a dot represent? What does the interval between dots represent? Write down the set of initial conditions that would match the graphs of the "Dot Lab" you ran a few days ago. What was your acceleration in the "Dot Lab"?
Set Vxi to 0 and Ax to a positive value on their respective sliders. Now, use your mouse on the velocity graph to find two (x, y) pairs and calculate the slope of the velocity graph. Does this value match the acceleration? Remember the "Dot Lab"! Next, calculate the area under the velocity-time graph. Does this area match the displacement for your interval? Check your calculations with the data table values to the right.
Now set both Vxi and Ax to a positive value and repeat the steps above. Remember, check your results with the data table!
Now set Vxi to a positive value and Ax to a negative one. What happens initially? (Look at the dots) Repeat the steps in #2.
Note: Can you have a "negative area" in this case? What do you think a negative area means? Remember, check your results with the data table!
Now set Vxi to a negative value and Ax to a positive one. What is the difference between these graphs and the ones in #3? What is the sign of the net area under the velocity graph? Does this make sense?
Please look at the code. On what lines are the actual Kinematics Equations? What do you think "set" means at the beginning of these lines of code? How does one multiply variables in this code?
