This simulation gives students a powerful way to investigate the meaning of shape and slope for three types of motion graphs: position vs. time, velocity vs. time, and acceleration vs. time. The simulation starts with a motion diagram of a blue ball moving horizontally, with a position vs. time graph simultaneously displayed. The student's task is to "match" the motion of an adjacent red ball to that of the blue ball, by using sliders to set the initial position, initial velocity, and acceleration. To set it up correctly requires the student to analyze and interpret motion of the blue ball. After matching the motion, students can predict what the velocity and acceleration graphs look like by sliding the end points of the red lines up or down to give correct straight-line graphs.

See Annotations Below for an editor-recommended interactive tutorial on interpreting motion graphs.

This item was created with Easy Java Simulations (EJS), a modeling tool that allows users without formal programming experience to generate computer models and simulations. To run the simulation, simply click the Java Archive file below. To modify or customize the model, See Related Materials for detailed instructions on installing and running the EJS Modeling and Authoring Tool.

Please note that this resource requires at least version 1.5 of Java (JRE).