More practice with interpretation of graphs

This worksheet is in response to the following question:

I feel like I am getting better at working the graphs. Sometimes I think I understand it
better when you go over it, but when i have to do it on my own I'm not as clear. Could you
give some extra problems for force vs. position and velocity vs. time graphs that we could
work at home if we want to?

When working with graphs of this nature, you will generally be trying to interpret the
slope and area of a trapezoid or a series of trapezoids.

For each trapezoid you need to ask yourself a series of questions:

Then you ask the interpretation questions:

Note that the slope generally has a meaning as a rate of change of one quantity with respect to the other.  The area doesn't always necessarily have a very meaningful interpretation, but very often it will.

Some of the situations described below might not all be familiar to you, so the interpretations won't necessarily have a lot of meaning, but some should and you can still practice the process of interpretation using these graphs.

If you want feedback, you can copy this document into your word processor and fill in the blanks, then submit it to the instructor using the form.  The graphs won't show but the questions and your answers will and the instructor will know what each one means:

Graph 1 below represents velocity in cm / s vs. clock time in seconds.

 

Graph 2 below represents position in cm vs. clock time in seconds.

 

Graph 3 below represents force in Newtons vs. clock time in seconds.

 

Graph 4 below represents force in Newtons vs. position in meters.

 

Graph 5 below represents acceleration in cm / s^2 vs. clock time in seconds.

 

Graph 6 below represents energy in Newton meters vs. position in cm.

 

Graph 7 below represents electric field in N / m vs. position in m.

 

Graph 8 below represents the gravitational potential energy of a loaded airplane in megaJoules vs. altitude in meters.