Stanton D. answered • 01/31/21
Tutor to Pique Your Sciences Interest
Hi Aysha C.,
Physics IS a scientific and logical investigation of the relationship between matter and energy, at the macroscopic scale. It deals with relationships between objects (masses), forces, velocities, distances, etc. I would personally call it "great stuff!", but perhaps that is a matter of opinion.
Relationships between two positions could include displacement, the directional vector between them (has a magnitude and a direction), and distance, the non-directional separation between them (it is a scalar quantity, that is, it has no direction associated with it, only a magnitude). Comparably, you will also encounter the concepts of speed (distance/time) and velocity (displacement/time), which are also a scalar and vector, respecively. But acceleration, the next derivative of position with respect to time, that we generally think of as a vector only.
Incidentally, we can probably detect a couple further derivatives of position with respect to time -- if you think about it, a sudden jolt involves non-zero derivatives right up the line!
Now, going the other way, can you think about the meaning of the integral of position with respect to time? Nothing we ordinarily use per se -- but if a position field were associated with a comparable force field, the accumulation of kinetic energy by an object would be so calculated.
Best wishes with your physics studies, -- Mr. d.
Stanton D.
And by the way, objects "jolting" into each other = elastic collisions, are a major introduction to kinematics, the study of interacting moving objects. But an elastic collision is never really instantaneous, although we treat it as such -- it always involves a deformation of the two objects, and then a rebound.01/31/21