Questions on graphs for physics!!!?

Question

how do you find position on a velocity vs time graph.

how do you find displacement on a position vs time graph.

how to find displacement and avg. velocity on a positon vs. time graph?

Answer 1

1) You need to find the area underneath the graph, up to the time that you're looking for. For example, if you want the position at t = 1 second, then you need to find the area under the graph from the origin (t = 0 seconds) to t = 1 second.

2) You first need to known what direction(s) the object is/was traveling in. Assuming it stayed in one direction, then to find the displacement, you just check the value of the graph at whatever time you're interested in. That point will be the 'position', then the displacement is just position + direction it was traveling it (ie. '5km East' would be a displacement).

If it changed directions, then finding the displacement would be more difficult, and would depend on when/what direction changes were made.

3) For average velocity, you need to first pick the two points to average between. One would be the origin most likely, the other would be at some time 't'. Then you would draw a straight line connecting the two points. The slope of this line, is the average velocity.