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Science
Learner’s Material

Unit 3 – Energy in Motion

Module 1: Describing Motion

This instructional material was collaboratively developed and

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other education stakeholders to email their feedback,
comments, and recommendations to the Department of
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Department of Education
Republic of the Philippines
Science – Grade 7
Learner’s Material
First Edition, 2013
ISBN: 978-971-9990-58-1

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Published by the Department of Education

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Consultant: Merle C. Tan, Ph.D.

Authors: Alvie J. Asuncion, Maria Helen D.H. Catalan, Ph.D., Leticia V. Catris, Ph.D.,
Marlene B. Ferido, Ph.D., Jacqueline Rose M. Gutierrez, Michael Anthony B. Mantala,
Cerilina M. Maramag, Ivy P. Mejia, Eligio C. Obille, Jr., Risa L. Reyes, Ph.D.,
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Editors: Josefina Ll. Pabellon, Ph.D., Ma. Cristina D. Padolina, Ph.D., Risa L. Reyes,
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 Table of Contents

Unit 3: Energy in Motion

Module 1: Describing Motion....................................................................1
Activity 1: Where is it?.....................................................................................2
Activity 2: My home to school roadmap...........................................................6
Activity 3: Fun walk.........................................................................................7
Activity 4: Doing detective work....................................................................10

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 Suggested time allotment: 8 to 10 hours

Unit 3
MODULE

1 DESCRIBING MOTION

Many of the things around us move. Some move slowly like the turtles and
clouds, others move much more quickly like the satellites. Because motion is so
common, it seems to be very simple. But in science, describing motion actually
entails careful use of some definitions.

This module provides you with scientific knowledge and skills necessary to
describe motion along a straight path. You will learn to describe the motion of objects
in terms of position, distance travelled, and speed. You will also learn to analyze or
represent motion of objects using charts, diagrams, and graphs. While these all
provide the same information about the motion of objects, you will find out that one
may be more helpful than the other depending on your particular objective.

At the end of this module, you are expected to answer the following
questions:

When can we say that an object is in motion?

How do we describe the motion of an object?

Where?

Before you will be able to describe the motion of an object, you must first be
able to tell exactly where it is positioned. Describing exact position entails two ideas:
describing how far the object is from the point of reference and describing its
direction relative to that point of reference. You will learn about the importance of
point of reference and direction when you perform Activity 1.

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Activity 1
Where is it?

Objective
In this activity, you should be able to describe in words the position of an
object within the room or the school ground.

Procedure
1. Obtain from your teacher the piece of paper that describes where you will find
the object.

Q1. Were you able to find the object? Was it easy or difficult?
Q2. Is the instruction clear and easy to follow? What made it so?

2. Put back the object to its place, if you found it. Otherwise, ask your teacher first
where it is located before you move on to the next step.

3. Revise the instruction to make it more helpful. Write it on a separate sheet of

paper and let another group use it to find the object.

Q3. Were they successful in finding the object? Was it easy for them or difficult?
Q4. What other details or information included in your instruction that made it
clearer and easier to follow?
Q5. In your own words, what is point of reference and how important it is?

Describing through visuals

The position of an object can be described in many ways. You can use words,
like what you did in Activity 1. You can also use visuals, like diagrams or graphs. Use
the examples to explore how these help in providing accurate descriptions of
positions of objects.

Using diagrams
Consider the diagram in Figure 1. The positions of the objects are described
in the diagram by their coordinates along the number line.

-15m -10m - 5m 0m 5m 10m 15m

Figure 1

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Q6. What is the position of the dog?
Q7. What is the position of the tree?
Q8. What is the position of the dog with respect to the house?
Q9. What is the position of the tree with respect to the dog?

Here is another example. In this diagram, the positions of the ball rolling are
shown at equal intervals of time. You can use the diagram to describe the position of
the ball at any given time.

(Timer) 00 : 00 00 : 05 00 : 10 00 : 15
min sec min sec min sec min sec

0m 5m 10m 15m

Figure 2

Q10. What is the initial position of the ball? What is its final position?
Q11. What is the position of the ball at 10 seconds?
Q12. At what time is the position of the ball equal to 5 meters?

Using graphs

Another way to describe the motion of the ball is by the use of motion graphs.
Convert the diagram in Figure 2 to graph by following the guide below.

I. Fill up Table 1 using the data in Figure 2. Note that the positions of the ball are
shown every 5 seconds.

Table 1: Position of the ball vs time

Time (s) Position of the ball (m)
0 0

II. Plot the values in Table 1 as points on the graph in Figure 3. Note that time is
plotted on the X-axis while position is plotted on the Y-axis. An example is given
below.

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 Position (m)

15

10

5 (20s, 5m)

0 5 10 15 20

Time (s)
Figure 3

III. Lastly, draw a straight diagonal line through the points in the graph.

The graph that you have just drawn in Figure 3 is called position-time graph.
You can also use this graph to describe the position of the ball at any given time. For
example, if you are asked to find the position of the ball at 10 seconds, all you need
to do is to find the point along the diagonal line where the vertical line at the 10
second-mark intersects (Figure 4). Then find where the horizontal line from that point
of intersection will cross the Y axis, which is the position axis. This will give you the
position of the ball at 10 seconds.

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 Positon (m)
Point of
intersection

0 10 Time (s)

Figure 4
Now try answering the following questions using your own position-time
graph.
Q13. What is the position of the ball at 7.5 seconds?
Q14. At what time is the position of the ball equal to 12.5 meters?

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 How Far?

In science, motion is
N
defined as the change in position
for a particular time interval. You W E
can then start describing motion 10m S
with the question, “How far did the 5m
object travel?” There are actually 10m
two ways to answer this question.
First is by getting the total length
of the path travelled by the object.
In Figure 5 for example, the dog
ran 10m to the east, then 5m to Figure 5
the south, and another 10m to the
west. So it has travelled a total of
25 meters. The other way is by measuring the distance between the initial position
and final position of the object. Based again on Figure 5, the dog has travelled 5
meters to the south.

In science, the first measurement gives the distance travelled by the object
(represented by broken lines) while the second measurement gives its displacement
(represented by continuous line).

Here are more illustrations showing the difference between distance travelled
(represented by broken lines) by an object and its displacement (represented by
continuous lines).

a.
b.

c.

Figure 6
Can you give one difference between distance and displacement based on
the given examples? When can displacement be equal to zero? Is it possible to get
A
zero displacement? What if the ball, the car, and the dog in the illustration go back to
their starting positions, what will happen to their respective distances? How about
D their displacements? If you answered these questions correctly, then you have most
probably understood the difference between distance and displacement.

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  Distance refers to the length of the entire path that the object
travelled.
 Displacement refers to the shortest distance between the object’s
two positions, like the distance between its point of origin and its
point of destination, no matter what path it took to get to that
destination.

When a graph is plotted in terms of the distance travelled by the object and
the time it took to cover such distance, the graph can be called distance-time graph.
If the graph is plotted in terms of displacement and time, it is called displacement-
time graph. Refer to the graph in Figure 7. What is the displacement of the object
after 2 seconds? What is its displacement after 6 seconds? How will you describe the
motion of the object between 0s and 2s, between 2s and 4s, and between 4s and
6s?
Displacement (m)

0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Time (s)

Figure 7

Activity 2
My home to school roadmap

Objective
In this activity you should be able to make a roadmap that shows how you get
to school from your house.

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Procedure
1. Devise a way to easily measure distance. Let your teacher check your non-
standard measurement for precision.
2. Using your measuring device, gather the data that you will need for your
roadmap. Make sure that you take down notes of all names of the roads,
landmarks, corners, posts, and establishments you pass by. Record your data
properly.
3. Using your gathered data, draw your house-school roadmap on a short bond
paper. Decide on the most convenient scale to use when you draw your
roadmap. An example is shown below.

1 cm Scale: 1 cm = 1 km
2 km
5 km

3 km

Figure 8

4. Label your roadmap properly, including names of the roads, establishments,

etc. Specify also the length of road.
5. Finally, let your teacher check again your work.
Q1. What is the total length of your travel from your house to your school?
Q2. What is the total displacement of your travel?

How fast?

After determining how far the object moves, the next question will be “How
fast did the object move?” This information can be provided by the object’s speed or
velocity.

Are you familiar with the traffic signs below? These signs tell us the maximum
or minimum speed limits allowed by law for road vehicles. In general, the minimum
speed limit in the Philippines is 60 km/h and the maximum speed limit is 100 km/h.

What are the units used in the above examples of speed limits? What
quantities do these units represent that are related to speed?

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Activity 3
Fun walk

Objective
In this activity you should be able to gather data to determine who walks
fastest.
Procedure
1. Start by choosing a spacious place to walk straight.
2. Half of the group will walk while the other half will observe and record data.
3. Mark on the ground the starting line. All participants must start from the starting
line at the same time.
4. Upon receiving the go signal, all participants must start to walk as fast as they
could. The other members should observe closely as the participants walk and
determine who walks fastest.
5. Repeat #4 but this time, collect data to support your conclusion. Discuss within
your group how you are going to do this.
Q1. What quantities did you measure for your data?
Q2. How did you combine these quantities to determine how fast each participant
was walking?
Q3. How did you use the result to determine who walked fastest?

Speed
The questions in the above activity are actually referring to speed. If you know
the speed of each participant, you can tell who is the fastest. Speed is defined as
distance travelled divided by the time of travel.

distance travelled
speed 
time of travel

The units of speed can be miles per hour (mi/h), kilometres per hour (km/h), or
meters per second (m/s).

Q4. At constant distance, how is speed related to the time of travel?

Q5. At constant time to travel, how is speed related to the distance travelled?
Q6. Who was travelling faster than the other, a person who covered 10 meters in 5
seconds or the one who took 10 seconds to cover 20 meters?

Speed and direction

In describing the motion of an object, we do not just describe how fast the
object moves. We also consider the direction to where it is going. Speed with
direction is referred to as velocity. The sample weather bulletin below will show you
the importance of knowing not just the speed of the storm but also its direction.

Table 2: Sample weather bulletin

Weather Bulletin: Tropical Storm "Juaning"

Wednesday, 27 July 2011 at 09:27:14 AM
Location of 90 km East of Infanta,
Center Quezon
Coordinates 14.8°N, 122.5°E

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 Strength of the Max. wind speed of 85 km/hr near the center & gustiness of up
winds to 100 km/hr
Movement 11km/hr going West-Northwest
Forecast On Wednesday AM: Expected to make landfall over Polillo
Island between 8am to 10am and over Southern Aurora by 1pm
to 3pm and will traverse Central Luzon
Whenever there is a storm coming, we are notified of its impending danger in
terms of its speed and direction. Aside from this, we are also informed about its
strength. Do you know that as the storm moves, its winds move in circles? The
circular speed of the winds of the storm determines its strength. Different storm
signals are given in places depending on the circular speed of the winds of the storm
and the distance from the center.

Study again the weather bulletin above. Which is the speed for the circular
motion of the typhoon winds? Which is the speed for the motion of the storm as a
whole along the path? How important are speed and direction in determining the
weather forecast for the next hours?

Constant speed vs instantaneous speed

If you solved for the distance travelled by each participant over the time he
took to cover such distance, then you have computed for his average speed. But why
average speed and not just speed? It is considered average speed because it
represents the speed of the participant throughout his travel. During his travel, there
were instants that his speed would vary. His speed at an instant is called
instantaneous speed. Similarly, the velocity of a moving body at an instant is called
instantaneous velocity. The instantaneous speed may be equal, greater than, or less
than the average speed.

When an object’s instantaneous speed values are always the same, then it
means that the object is moving with constant speed. We refer to this as constant
motion. Where you will be and what time you will reach your destination is easily
predicted when you move at constant speed or velocity.

Are you familiar with the speedometer? Speedometer is a device used to

measure the instantaneous speed of a vehicle. Speedometers are important to the
drivers because they need to know how fast they are going so they know if they are
already driving beyond the speed limit or not.

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How fast is the velocity changing?

Source: http://drrm.region4a.dost.gov.ph/

Figure 9. Track of tropical storm “Juaning”

In reality, objects do not always move at constant velocity. Storms like

“Juaning” also do change their speeds, directions, or both. The next activity will help
you analyze examples of motion with changing velocities (or with changing speed,
since we are only trying to analyze examples of motion in only one direction) using
tape charts and motion graphs.

Activity 4
Doing detective work

Consider this situation below:

Supposed you were having your on-the-job training in a private investigating

company. You were asked to join a team assigned to investigate a ‘hit and
run’ case. The alleged suspect was captured by the CCTV camera driving
down a road leading to the place of incident. The suspect denied the
allegation, saying that he was then driving very slowly with a constant speed.
Because of the short time difference when he was caught by the camera and
when the accident happened, he insisted that it was impossible that he would
already be at the place when the crime happened. But when you were
viewing the scene again on the camera, you noticed that his car was leaving
oil spots on the road. When you checked these spots on site, you found out
that they are still evident. So you began to wonder if the spots can be used to
investigate the motion of the car of the suspect and check whether he was
telling the truth or not.

Here is an activity that you can do to help you with your investigation. You will
analyze the motion using strips of papers with dots. For this activity, assume that the
dots represent the ‘oil drops’ left by the car down the road.

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Materials
 ruler
 paper strips with dots
 cutter or pair of scissors

Procedure

A. Using tape chart

1. Obtain from your teacher paper strips with dots.

2. Label each dot. Start from 0, then 1, 2, 3, and so on. In this example, each dot
occurred every 1 second.

1 sec

0 1 2 3

Figure 10

3. Examine the distances between successive dots.

Q1. How will you compare the distances between successive dots?

4. Cut the strip at each drop, starting

from the first to the last drop, and
4
paste them side by side on a graph
paper to form a tape chart as shown
in Figure 11. 3

Q2. How do the lengths of the tapes 2

compare?
1
Q3. If each tape represents the distance
travelled by the object for 1 second, then
what ‘quantity’ does each piece of tape Figure 11. Sample tape chart
provide?

Q4. What does the chart tell you about the speed of the car?

The difference in length between two successive tapes provides the object’s
acceleration or its change in speed or velocity for a time interval of 1 second.

Q5. How will you compare the changes in the lengths of two successive tapes?

Q6. What then can you say about the acceleration of the moving car?

B. Using motion graphs

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5. Measure the distance travelled by the car after 1 second, 2 seconds, and so on
by measuring the distance between drops 0 and 1, 0 and 2, and so on. Enter
your measurements in Table 3 on the right.

Table 3
Time of travel (s) Distance travelled (m)
1
2
3
4
5

6. Plot the values in Table 3 as points on the graph in Figure 12 on the right.

Q7. How does your distance-time graph look like?

Distance (cm)

0
7. Join the
mid-points Time (sec)
of the tops Figure 12
Speed (cm/s)

of the
tapes with a line. You have now
converted your tape chart to a
speed-time graph.

Q8. How does you graph look like?

How is this different from your 4
graph in Figure 12?
3
Q9. How will you interpret this
graph in terms of the speed 2
and acceleration of the moving
car? 1

1 2 3 4 Time (s)

Figure 13
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Q10. If you found out in your investigation that the arrangement of oil drops left by
the car is similar to what you used in this activity, was the suspect telling the
truth when he said that he was driving with constant speed?

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 In this module, you have learned how to describe the motion of objects in
terms of position, distance and displacement, speed and velocity, and acceleration.
You have also learned how to represent motion of objects using diagrams, charts,
and graphs.

Let us summarize what you have learned by relating distance, displacement,

speed, velocity, and acceleration.

 If an object does not change its position at a given time interval, then it is
at rest or its speed is zero or not accelerating.
 If an object covers equal distance at equal intervals of time, then it is
moving at constant speed and still not accelerating.

 If an object covers varying distances at equal intervals of time, then it is

moving with changing speed or velocity. It means that the object is
accelerating.

Links and References

Chapter 2: Representing Motion. Retrieved March 14, 2012 from http://igcse-

physics--41-p2-yrh.brentsvillehs.schools.pwcs.edu/modules

Chapter 3: Accelerated Motion. Retrieved March 14, 2012 from http://igcse-physics--

41-p2-yrh.brentsvillehs.schools.pwcs.edu/modules

HS Science IV: Physics in your environment. Teacher’s Edition. 1981. Science

Education Center. Quezon City

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