Cracking the SAT Physics Subject Test

Note that the average velocity (or average speed) for the whole journey is not the
same as taking the average of the velocities (or speeds) of the individual parts of
the journey.

Distance

Remember that distance

is a scalar quantity, so the

total distance covered in

any direction matters.

Also, remember that if any portion of a Position vs. Time graph is “curvy,” this
indicates that the object is accelerating.

acceleration

No Curve Balls

Finding the accurate slope

of an accelerating graph

like this would require

Calculus, but as that’s not

a skill needed for the SAT

Physics Subject Test, you

can rest assured that virtually

all graphs that need

to be solved in this fashion

will be on the straight and

narrow.

As for questions that rely

upon estimations of the

slope, you can simply

picture the line tangent to

each point on the curve.