Usually time is the independent variable on the horizontal (or X) axis. Position or displacement is the dependent variable (that is, it's a function of time) on the vertical (or Y) axis. For any point on the curve, there will be an associated value for time, t, and a corresponding value for displacement, s. In other words, you can determine an object's position -- or displacement from the origin -- for any time, t. Going further, you can determine an object's speed, too. For any two points on the curve, (t1, s1) and (t2, s2), the speed can be calculated using the following formula: Speed = (s2 - s1) / (t2 - t1)
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Displacement in a position-time graph can be determined by finding the difference between the final position and the initial position of an object. This is represented by the vertical distance between the starting and ending points on the graph. Negative displacement indicates movement in the opposite direction.
A position-time graph shows the relationship between an object's position and time. The position of the object is typically plotted on the y-axis, while time is on the x-axis. The slope of the graph represents the object's velocity, with a steeper slope indicating a higher velocity.
To go from a position graph to a velocity graph, you can calculate the slope of the position graph at each point. The slope at any given point on a position vs. time graph represents the velocity at that specific time. Therefore, the velocity graph would be a plot of the slopes at each point on the position graph.
To find instantaneous velocity from a position-time graph, you calculate the slope of the tangent line at a specific point on the graph. The slope represents the rate of change of position at that instant, which is equivalent to the velocity at that particular moment.
No, the slope on a position-time graph represents the object's velocity, not acceleration. Acceleration would be represented by the slope of the velocity-time graph.
The position at time t (and therefore the height of the p-t graph) will be the area under the v-t curve between time 0 and t.