The first week is introducing the idea of vectors and scalars and the important difference between the two types of quantities when dealing with a physical situation. The videos provide the example of two different quantities in physics that there is a direct relationship between: velocity/speed and position/distance. Typically we will focus on analyzing situations using the vector quantities of velocity and position but it is important to know the relationship between the vector version of the quantity (velocity for example) and the magnitude of the quantity (speed is the magnitude of the velocity). A vector has both a direction and magnitude (velocity is a vector) while a scalar only has a magnitude (speed is a scalar).
The first video introduces discusses the difference between scalars and vectors.
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The second video goes into detail about the specific quantities of displacement and velocity explaining the concepts and how to calculate them.
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The final video discusses relative velocity. This video highlights that although we conceive of velocities in our every day life we often do not think about the importance of how they are observed. In simple terms the velocity of a bus is relative to who is observing the bus. If the person observing bus is stationary, the bus will have a different velocity to the person than if the person was walking. We often do not consider this in our daily life. The relative nature of a velocity might not be considered in a physics problem if all velocities given are relative to the same observation point. However, if different observation points are being used then we need to understand how the velocities relate to each other and there observation points.
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Trinity Walton Club Activity Archive 