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Chapter 4 Kinematics

Motions in a plane or a three-dimensional space require treating position, velocity, and acceleration as vector quantities. Each vector quantity would have a magnitude and a direction. The direction can be given by angles the vector makes with respect to axes.

In a plane, you need only one angle, which would often be with respect to the positive or negative \(x\) axis. In the three-dimensional space, the direction is often given by the angle coordinates of the spherical coordinate system. In this chapter, for simplicity, we mostly focus on motion in the \(xy\)-plane.