Position, Distance, and Displacement

If you want to catch a baseball, you have to know where to hold your glove. In order to begin describing any object in motion, we must begin with the seemingly simple question “Where is it?”

In this topic, you will gather the groundwork for understanding moving objects by learning how to precisely describe the position of objects. Also, you will explore how to represent the changing position of an object over time.

Essential Questions:

• What components do you use to describe motion?
• What is the difference between scalar and vector quantities?
• How do you calculate the displacement of an object?