AC HPAT Physics vocabulary

DIstance - Answer · Distance is a scalar quantity that refers to "how much ground an object has covered" during its motion. Displacement - Answer · Displacement is a vector quantity that refers to "how far out of place an object is"; it is the object's overall change in position. Position - Answer · Position is a place where someone or something is located or has been put. In physics, position is usually a number on an axis. ... Position is a vector, because direction matters. But distance is a scalar. Distance is how far you've traveled. Speed - Answer · Speed is the distance traveled per unit of time. It is how fast an object is moving. Speed is the scalar quantity that is the magnitude of the velocity vector. It doesn't have a direction. Acceleration - Answer · Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity with time. Instantenous velocity - Answer · Instantaneous velocity is the velocity of an object in motion at a specific point in time. This is determined similarly to average velocity, but we narrow the period of time so that it approaches zero. If an object has a standard velocity over a period of time, its average and instantaneous velocities may be the same.