How can you determine if an object's motion is increasing, decreasing, or constant speed?

How can you determine if an object's motion is increasing, decreasing, or constant speed?

• A. By analyzing changes in distance over time or analyzing a graph of speed vs time
• B. By measuring color changes of the object
• C. By watching for instantaneous position only
• D. By counting how many times it bounces

Answer: (A)

Speed is how fast something moves, and you can tell if that speed is increasing, decreasing, or staying the same by looking at how distance changes over time or by using a speed-versus-time graph. If distance versus time shows the line getting steeper, the object is moving faster—speed is increasing. If the line has a constant slope, the speed stays the same. If the line becomes less steep, the speed is decreasing. A graph that directly shows speed over time makes this even clearer: an upward trend means speeding up, a flat line means constant speed, and a downward trend means slowing down. Color changes don’t reveal speed, looking at instantaneous position alone doesn’t show how fast it’s changing, and counting bounces isn’t a reliable measure of speed.

Speed is how fast something moves, and you can tell if that speed is increasing, decreasing, or staying the same by looking at how distance changes over time or by using a speed-versus-time graph. If distance versus time shows the line getting steeper, the object is moving faster—speed is increasing. If the line has a constant slope, the speed stays the same. If the line becomes less steep, the speed is decreasing. A graph that directly shows speed over time makes this even clearer: an upward trend means speeding up, a flat line means constant speed, and a downward trend means slowing down. Color changes don’t reveal speed, looking at instantaneous position alone doesn’t show how fast it’s changing, and counting bounces isn’t a reliable measure of speed.