Vectors & Scalars: The Building Blocks of Motion

Understanding the difference between vectors and scalars is your first step to mastering physics. Vectors have both magnitude (size) and direction - like velocity, displacement, and force. Scalars only have magnitude - like speed, distance, and mass.

Displacement is the shortest route from start to finish, whilst distance is the total path travelled. Think of it like this: if you walk around the block and end up back home, your displacement is zero, but you've still covered distance!

Speed tells you how fast something moves (v = d/t), but velocity includes direction too. Acceleration measures how quickly velocity changes over time - and remember, slowing down is just negative acceleration.

Quick Tip: On speed-time graphs, the gradient shows acceleration, whilst the area under the curve gives you the total distance travelled.

Forces and Newton's Laws: Why Things Move

Newton's three laws govern everything that moves around you. The first law says objects keep doing what they're already doing unless a force acts on them - that's why you slide forward when a car brakes suddenly.

The second law gives us F = ma, showing that bigger forces create bigger accelerations. The third law is about action-reaction pairs - when you walk, you push back on the ground, and it pushes forward on you.

Mass measures how much matter is in an object (in kg), whilst weight is the gravitational force acting on that mass (W = mg). You'd have the same mass on the Moon, but you'd weigh much less!

When forces act on objects, add them if they're in the same direction, subtract if they're opposite. The resultant force determines whether an object accelerates, and friction often opposes motion by converting kinetic energy to heat.

Remember: An object only moves if the driving force is bigger than the friction force opposing it.