Unit 4 2D Kinematics

Today we applied our knowledge of one dimensional kinematics, and figured out how to do 2D kinematics. 1D kinematics only involves one axis, so a ball rolling across the floor or a car driving only involves the X axis. Dropping something from a balcony or tossing a ball up in the air only involves the Y axis. However if the car were to drive off a cliff, or you played catch with a friend, two axes come into play. The key to handling 2D kinetics though is to always remember that the two axes are independent of each other. They do not affect each other. It's hard to wrap your mind around but consider this: in the picture above my friend and I, on the left, will hit the water at the same time as the boys on the right if we jump at the same time from the same height. Even though we jumped straight down and they ran out for a farther jump, we all landed at the same time. We all have the same Y variables or distance, acceleration, and velocity, only our X variables vary. In terms of the X axis we have 0 displacement, while they land out a couple meters. Also, we have no acceleration on the X axis, but they do because they ran and jumped. Time is a function of the Y axis, and our Y axis are the same so we land at the same time. The variation of X axis does not interfere with the Y axis, thus does not affect the falling time.