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In addition to the revision notes for Position, Reference Point on this page, you can also access the following Kinematics learning resources for Position, Reference Point
| Tutorial ID | Title | Tutorial | Video Tutorial | Revision Notes | Revision Questions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.2 | Position, Reference Point |
In these revision notes for Position, Reference Point, we cover the following key points:
A fixed point with respect to which a body changes its location is called Reference Point or Origin.
When dealing with calculations in Kinematics, the reference point is usually the origin of the coordinate system, no matter whether the system is 1, 2 or 3 dimensional. The reference point (origin) is usually denoted by the number 0 or the letter O.
The concept of Location is different from that of Position. Thus, Location does not imply the use of any reference point or coordinate. Therefore, no numerical values are involved when dealing with the location of an object.
On the other hand, Position is a physical quantity that shows how far an object from the origin (reference point) is. Position not only has a magnitude (numerical value) but it also has a direction. Given this, position can be positive, negative or zero depending on which part of the reference point it is.
In a system of coordinates, we can assign a letter to each direction available. Thus, if there is only one direction available (1-D), we denote the axis by the letter x and the object's position by the vector x⃗ or Ox⃗.
When two directions of motion (2-D) are available, we can express the position of an object using a pair or coordinates (one for each direction). We must use two letters (usually x and y) to label the directions. Therefore, we need to know both coordinates to determine the location of an object in 2-D.
Likewise, we can use the same approaches in 3-D (in space) as well. We have another direction added in this case. Usually, it is denoted by the letter z. Therefore, we must write all three coordinates to determine the position of an object.
The 1 and 2 dimensional motions are special cases of the 3 dimensional motion. We can either write 0 in the place of the missing coordinates or simply represent the position in as many coordinates as given.
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