Welcome to our Physics lesson on The meaning of reference point, this is the first lesson of our suite of physics lessons covering the topic of Position, Reference Point, you can find links to the other lessons within this tutorial and access additional physics learning resources below this lesson.
Let's try to explain the concept of reference point by providing answers to the questions posed in the "Introduction" section.
1. The downloading bar seems unmoveable. At first sight, it seems the downloading process has stopped. You can check this by putting the cursor at the end of the orange bar, which shows the downloading progress. After a while, you can check whether the orange bar has moved on the right of the cursor or not. If yes, the downloading process is active. Therefore, the cursor acts as a reference point for you as it helps understanding whether the downloading progress bar is moving or not.
Look at the figure below:
2. The bright star is slightly on the left of pyramid in the first figure. After a while, it "shifts" on the right of the pyramid. In this way, the pyramid acts as a reference point, which helps us to understand whether the stars are in the same place as before or they "have moved".
Look at the figure:
we can visualise movement from looking at the stars using a pryamid (or triangle as shown in the images) to track relative motivon" width="" />
3. In the figure below, the star in the wall helps us understand that the clock is working properly as the minute hand has moved in respect to the star. Therefore, it (the star) acts as a reference point.
In all the above examples, it was clearly outlined the necessity and importance of a reference point from which we start making any measurement or estimation in order to detect any change in object's location.
Thus, by definition, "A fixed point with respect to which a body changes its location is called Reference Point or Origin."
When dealing with calculations in Kinematics, reference point is usually the origin of the coordinate system, no matter whether the system is 1, 2 or 3 dimensional. Reference point (origin) is usually denoted by the number 0 or the letter O.
You have reach the end of Physics lesson 3.2.1 The meaning of reference point. There are 3 lessons in this physics tutorial covering Position, Reference Point, you can access all the lessons from this tutorial below.
| Tutorial ID | Physics Tutorial Title | Tutorial | Video Tutorial | Revision Notes | Revision Questions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.2 | Position, Reference Point | ||||
| Lesson ID | Physics Lesson Title | Lesson | Video Lesson | ||
| 3.2.1 | The meaning of reference point | ||||
| 3.2.2 | What is Position? How does it differ from Location? | ||||
| 3.2.3 | Position in the system of coordinates | ||||
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