Read the given paragraph and answer the questions that follow.
Aman woke up early to visit the science park with his cousin, Suman. As he sat in the car, he noticed that the buildings and trees seemed to move backwards, even though he was sitting still in the car. Suman explained that he was in motion with respect to the ground, but at rest with respect to the car.
At the park, they observed a large rotating globe, which Suman identified as an example of circular motion. A nearby pendulum clock moved back and forth, showing periodic motion, while a person jogging on a straight track showed rectilinear motion.
Later, Aman participated in a science experiment. He used a toy car and stopwatch to measure how far it travelled every 5 seconds. On a smooth surface, it moved the same distance each time, showing uniform motion. On a rough patch, the distance varied, which was non-uniform motion.
As they climbed a small hill in the park, Suman mentioned feeling lighter. Their guide explained that it was because weight depends on gravity, which slightly decreases at higher altitudes, although mass remains constant.
When returning home, Aman checked the total distance they travelled was 30 km, but their displacement—from starting point to ending point—was zero, because they came back to the same place.
- (a)Why did Aman feel the trees were moving backwards while he was sitting inside the car?
- (b)Identify the three types of motion Aman and Suman observed at the science park.
- (c)What difference did Aman notice between the toy car's movement on a smooth surface and a rough surface? What types of motion do these represent?
- (d)Why did Suman feel lighter while climbing the hill, even though her mass didn't change?
- (e)How was the distance travelled by Aman and Suman different from their displacement when they returned home?
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- Aman felt the trees were moving backwards because he was in motion along with the moving car. With respect to the moving car, the trees outside kept changing their position, so they appeared to move backwards. Rest and motion are relative terms, and the trees appeared to move only because of Aman's point of observation.
- The three types of motion they observed at the science park were circular motion (the rotating globe), periodic motion (the pendulum clock moving back and forth) and rectilinear motion (the person jogging on a straight track).
- On the smooth surface, the toy car covered the same distance in each equal interval of time, which is uniform motion. On the rough patch, the distance varied in equal intervals of time, which is non-uniform motion.
- Suman felt lighter while climbing the hill because weight depends on the gravitational pull, which decreases slightly at higher altitudes. Her mass remained constant, but as the gravity reduced, her weight became less, making her feel lighter.
- The distance they travelled was 30 km, which is the total length of the actual path covered. Their displacement was zero because they returned to the same starting point, and displacement is the shortest distance between the initial and final positions.




