Lesson 8: Position, Speed, and Direction

Let's use signed numbers to represent movement.

8.1: Distance, Rate, Time

  1. An airplane moves at a constant speed of 120 miles per hour for 3 hours. How far does it go?
  2. A train moves at constant speed and travels 6 miles in 4 minutes. What is its speed in miles per minute?
  3. A car moves at a constant speed of 50 miles per hour. How long does it take the car to go 200 miles?

8.2: Going Left, Going Right

A blank number line. The numbers negative 24 through 24, in increments of two, are indicated. There are tick marks midway between.
  1. After each move, record your location in the table. Then write an expression to represent the ending position that uses the starting position, the speed, and the time. The first row is done for you.
      starting
    position    		 direction speed
    (units per
    second)    		 time
    (seconds)    		 ending
    position
    (units)    		   expression  
    row 1 0 right 5 3 +15 $0 + 5 \boldcdot 3$
    row 2 0 left 4 6    
    row 3 0 right 2 8    
    row 4 0 right 6 2    
    row 5 0 left 1.1 5    
  2. How can you see the direction of movement in the expression?
  3. Using a starting position $p$, a speed $s$, and a time $t$, write two expressions for an ending position. One expression should show the result of moving right, and one expression should show the result of moving left.

8.3: Velocity

A traffic safety engineer was studying travel patterns along a highway. She set up a camera and recorded the speed and direction of cars and trucks that passed by the camera. Positions to the east of the camera are positive, and to the west are negative.

A number line with 3 evenly spaced tick marks. Starting with the first tick mark, the numbers negative 100, 0 and 100 are indicated. The leftmost side is labeled “west.” The rightmost side is labeled “east.”

Vehicles that are traveling towards the east have a positive velocity, and vehicles that are traveling towards the west have a negative velocity.

  1. Complete the table with the position of each vehicle if the vehicle is traveling at a constant speed for the indicated time period. Then write an equation.
      velocity
    (meters per
    second)    		 time after
    passing the
    camera
    (seconds)    		 ending
    position
    (meters)    		 equation
    describing
    position
    row 1 +25 +10 +250 $25 \boldcdot 10 = 250$
    row 2 -20 +30    
    row 3 +32 +40    
    row 4 -35 +20    
    row 5 +28 0    
  2. If a car is traveling east when it passes the camera, will its position be positive or negative 60 seconds after it passes the camera? If we multiply two positive numbers, is the result positive or negative?
  3. If a car is traveling west when it passes the camera, will its position be positive or negative 60 seconds after it passes the camera? If we multiply a positive and a negative number, is the result positive or negative?

Summary

We can use signed numbers to represent the position of an object along a line. We pick a point to be the reference point, and call it zero. Positions to the right of zero are positive. Positions to the left of zero are negative.

A number line with the numbers negative 10 through 10 indicated. A point is indicated at zero and is labeled "reference point." Another point is indicated at negative 4 and is labeled "4 units to the left of zero." A third point is indicated at 7 and is labeled "7 units to the right of zero."

When we combine speed with direction indicated by the sign of the number, it is called velocity. For example, if you are moving 5 meters per second to the right, then your velocity is +5 meters per second. If you are moving 5 meters per second to the left, then your velocity is -5 meters per second.

If you start at zero and move 5 meters per second for 10 seconds, you will be $5\boldcdot 10= 50$ meters to the right of zero. In other words, $ 5\boldcdot 10 = 50$.

If you start at zero and move -5 meters per second for 10 seconds, you will be $5\boldcdot 10= 50$ meters to the left of zero. In other words,

$$ \text-5\boldcdot 10 = \text-50$$

In general, a negative number times a positive number is a negative number.

Practice Problems ▶