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Re: displacement and graphs



At 03:24 PM 10/9/01 -0600, SSHS KPHOX wrote:
I did not say it well. The two ( displacement and velocity) are identical
in shape, not in value. I think position wrt some arbitrary reference is
fundamentally different from displacement in a tme interval.

time 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
pos 5 8 9 15 9 7 2
displ 3 1 6 -6 -2 -5

My world and vocabulary view.

That "vocabulary view" is a bit eccentric.

Eccentric vocabulary is not necessarily wrong, but it imposes a strict
responsibility to define and explain what is meant.

The "displ" row above might better be called the _incremental_ displacement
during each interval. It needs to be distinguished from the _net_
displacement measured relative to some unchanging reference.

Better yet, why not call it the "change in position" during the interval?

As mentioned previously, displacement generally means position relative to
some arbitrary reference. If you're not 100% sure that readers will know
what reference you've chosen, define and explain it explicitly.