Motion Concepts
11 concepts · Grades 6-8, 9-12 · 14 prerequisite connections
Motion is the foundation of physics — the study of how objects move through space over time. Starting with position and speed, students build up to velocity (which adds direction) and acceleration (how velocity changes). These ideas connect directly to everyday experience: a car speeding up on a highway, a ball thrown across a field, or a satellite orbiting the Earth. Understanding motion requires comfort with vectors and reference frames, which is why this family feeds into nearly every other physics topic.
This family view narrows the full physics map to one connected cluster. Read it from left to right: earlier nodes support later ones, and dense middle sections usually mark the concepts that hold the largest share of future work together.
Use the graph to plan review, then use the full concept list below to open precise pages for definitions, examples, formulas, and related guides.
Concept Dependency Graph
Concepts flow left to right, from foundational to advanced. Hover to highlight connections. Click any concept to learn more.
Connected Families
Motion concepts have 7 connections to other families.
All Motion Concepts
Position
The location of an object relative to a reference point, described using coordinates.
Displacement
The change in position from a starting point to an ending point, including both magnitude and direction.
Velocity
The rate of change of position with respect to time, including both magnitude and direction.
Speed
The rate at which an object covers distance over time, calculated as total distance divided by total time, always expressed as a non-negative scalar quantity without direction.
Acceleration
The rate at which an object's velocity changes over time, including changes in speed or direction.
Free Fall
Motion under the influence of gravity alone, with no air resistance acting on the object.
Projectile Motion
Motion of an object thrown or launched, moving under gravity with an initial velocity.
Circular Motion
Motion of an object along a circular path where the speed may be constant but the velocity is continuously changing direction, requiring a centripetal acceleration directed toward the centre of the circle.
Reference Frame
A coordinate system used to describe positions and motions, relative to an observer.
Vectors
Mathematical quantities that have both a magnitude (size) and a direction, represented as arrows in diagrams.
Angular Velocity
The rate at which an object rotates about an axis, measured in radians per second, with a direction along the axis.