Rectilinear Resisted Motion

Rectilinear resisted motion is part of the Mechanics topic in NSW Year 12 Mathematics Extension 2 (NESA outcome ME2-12-05). This subtopic uses Newton’s laws, \(\sum F = m\ddot{x}\), to derive the acceleration of a particle moving in a straight line against a resistance whose magnitude is proportional to a power of the speed.

Students and teachers will cover how to derive velocity as a function of time and of displacement, and displacement as a function of time, then solve resisted-motion problems — a challenging application of calculus and integration in the HSC Extension 2 course.