Physics Lesson 3.2.1 - The meaning of reference point

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.

The meaning of reference point

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:

Physics Tutorials: This image shows a downloading image with two seperate download bar rates to indictae the tracking of motion through time

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:

Physics Tutorials: This image shows two similar pictures of the stars, one above the other. Each image of the stars has a white triangle and a single bright star. On the first image, the star is above the trianlge, on the second image, the star is to the right <a href=of the triangle. This image helps to illustrate how 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.

Physics Tutorials: This image shows two basic clock faces, the first indicating 10:10 am, the second 10:15am to illustrate the passing of time and motion of the clock to measure time in equal units

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.

More Position, Reference Point Lessons and Learning Resources

Kinematics Learning Material
Tutorial IDPhysics Tutorial TitleTutorialVideo
Tutorial
Revision
Notes
Revision
Questions
3.2Position, Reference Point
Lesson IDPhysics Lesson TitleLessonVideo
Lesson
3.2.1The meaning of reference point
3.2.2What is Position? How does it differ from Location?
3.2.3Position in the system of coordinates

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