Explainer – 11 – Linear Motion, Reference point and Position of an Object

In our surrounding almost everything is in motion, from the leaves to cars to rockets, even when I am writing this explainer I’m also in motion but for now lets study the most basic type of motion known as the linear motion.

Linear Motion

 – As from the name it explains that it is the motion happening in a straight line, for example a car moving on a straight road, a cycle moving in a straight path, athletes running in straight designated paths for competitions.

Now to describe the position of an object we need a REFERENCE POINT, now lets understand Reference point at its simplest form 

• reference point is a point from which an object is seen in a specific position.

Position of an object can be determined by using some physical quantities like distance, displacement, speed etc. we will learn about these slowly in the next explainer.

So if a person moves 40m towards east then its position will be described as 40m towards east.

So we can conclude that :-

• Linear motion is the motion represented in a straight line
• Reference point is a point from which an object is seen
• Position of an object is determined by physical Quantities like distance, displacement, velocity, speed, acceleration etc.