Kinematics

The subject for Unit 2 of Physics is kinematics, which is the study of motion. Today, I took this picture of a screen on an exercise bike. The distinct blurriness of the image is due to changing numbers. The top number is the time measured in seconds. In this instant, I was on the bike for 26 seconds. The number on the bottom left-hand corner is the distance in miles. The distance at that moment was 0.04 or two-fifths of a mile. This bike is an example of how distance and displacement are different from each other. Since this is a stationary bike, my displacement is zero because I never travel away from my position. However, my speed on the bike combined with how long I rode it calculates to a certain distance, which does not include direction. Located next to the distance is the speed. In this case, my rate was 4.8 miles per hour. However, like cars, this bike can only measure one's instantaneous speed. Once I move faster or slower, the number changes to represent that particular speed. As a matter of fact, my speed reduced to 4.6 miles per hour after only 2 seconds. The factors of distance, time, and rate are all connected to kinematics. Changing one factor can affect others.