Cracking the SAT Physics Subject Test

FREE FALL The simplest real-life example of motion under almost constant acceleration is the motion of objects in the earth’s gr ...

+g. We’re given v 0 , s, and a, and asked for t. So v is missing; it isn’t given and it isn’t asked for, and we use Big Five #3. ...

Here’s How to Crack It The following figure shows that the displacement is down, so we call down the positive direction. Therefo ...

...

...

PROJECTILE MOTION In general, an object that moves near the surface of the earth will not follow a straight-line path; think of ...

The Skinny on Projectile Motion The perpendicular components of motion (horizontal and vertical) are independent of each other. ...

An object is thrown horizontally with an initial speed of 10 m/s. How far will it drop in 4 seconds? Here’s How to Crack It Th ...

The fact that ∆y is negative means that the displacement is down. Also, notice that the information given about v0x is irrelevan ...

The question “How far does it travel horizontally ...?” immediately tells us that we should use the first of the horizontal-moti ...

reach the top of the trajectory (because the parabola is symmetrical). So, as we did in the previous example, we can find the ti ...

Chapter 2 Comprehensive Drill See Chapter 17 for solutions. An object that’s moving with constant speed travels once around a c ...

(D) (E) Which of the following must always be true? I. If an object’s acceleration is constant, then it must move in a straigh ...

(E) 60 m A soccer ball, at rest on the ground, is kicked with an initial velocity of 10 m/s at a launch angle of 30°. Calculate ...

Key Terms kinematics displacement velocity average speed average velocity speed acceleration average acceleration uniform accele ...

Summary Displacement is the vector that connects an object’s initial position with its final position. It is the net distance tr ...

Chapter 3 Newton’s Laws In the previous chapter we studied the vocabulary and equations that describe motion. Now we will learn ...

Sir Isaac Newton published a book in 1687 called Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Latin for “Mathematical Principle ...

THE FIRST LAW Newton’s first law says that an object will continue in its state of motion unless compelled to change by a force ...

THE SECOND LAW Newton’s second law predicts what will happen when a force does act on an object: The object’s velocity will chan ...