Read a distance-time graph, find a speed from its gradient and spot when something stops or speeds up.
What you will learn
- Read distances and times off a graph
- Find speed from the gradient
- Describe a journey from the shape of the line
What the line tells you
Time goes along the bottom, distance goes up the side.
Every point is "at this time, it had gone this far".
- O to A: steep line, moving fast.
- A to B: flat line, distance not changing, so stationary.
- B to C: shallower line, moving more slowly.
The rest of this lesson and its 7 practice questions are locked.
In this lesson
- What the line tells you
- Gradient is speed
- Try it: Read it off the graph
7 practice questions, marked as you go; about 20 minutes in all.
Key terms
Stationary, Tangent
In this unit: Forces and motion
Speed, velocity and acceleration, the graphs that show them, the equations of motion, Newton's laws and stopping distances.