10. a) Q: In general, how can you tell from a position versus time graph when you are moving slow versus moving fast? b) Q: In general, how can you tell from a position versus time graph when you are moving in the positive direction versus moving in the negative direction? c) Q: In general, how can you tell from a position versus time graph when you are at rest (stopped) for a length of time? d) Q: How can you tell from a position versus time graph when your direction of motion has changed?
10. The position versus time graph for an object shows the position of the object at different instants of time.
(a) The slope of a position time graph gives the velocity of the object. If the slope at ant time is steeper than that at some other time, then we can say that the object is moving faster.
Thus, simply by looking at the steepness of the graph at different instants of time we can conclude if the object is moving faster or slower.
(b) In general from the position versus time graph we can say if the object is moving in the positive direction or the negative direction by simply looking at the nature of the slope of the graph at different instants of time. If at an instant of time the slope of the graph is positive, it means that the object is moving in the positive direction and if at some instant of time the slope of the graph is negative it means that the object is moving in the negative direction.
In another way we can say that if the position coordinate of the object at some instant is more than that at the previous instant, then the object is moving in the positive direction and if the position coordinate of the object at some instant is lesser than that at the previous instant, then it is moving in the negative direction.
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