Rectilinear motion: Linear motion (also called rectilinear motion) is a motion along a straight line, and can therefore be described mathematically using only one spatial dimension. The linear motion can be of two types: uniform linear motion with constant velocity or zero acceleration and non uniform linear motion with variable velocity or non-zero acceleration. This type of motion describes the movement of a particle or a body. A body is said to experience rectilinear motion if any two particles of the body travel the same distance along two parallel straight lines.
Rectilinear motion: Linear motion (also called rectilinear motion) is a motion along a straight line, and can therefore be described mathematically using only one spatial dimension. The linear motion can be of two types: uniform linear motion with constant velocity or zero acceleration and non uniform linear motion with variable velocity or non-zero acceleration. This type of motion describes the movement of a particle or a body. A body is said to experience rectilinear motion if any two particles of the body travel the same distance along two parallel straight lines. The figures below illustrate rectilinear motion for a particle and body. Fig. 1 shows (a) Rectilinear motion of a particle; (b) Rectilinear motion of a body.
(a) (b)
Fig 1
In the above figures, x(t) represents the position of the particles along the direction of motion, as a function of time t. Given the position of the particles, x(t), we can calculate the displacement, velocity, and acceleration.
The
acceleration is given by