In everyday life, we see some objects at rest and others in motion. Birds fly, fish swim, blood flows through veins and arteries and cars move. Atoms, molecules, planets, stars and galaxies are all in motion. We often perceive an object to be in motion when its position changes with time. However, there are situations where the motion is inferred through indirect evidences. For example, we infer the motion of air by observing the movement of dust and the movement of leaves and branches of trees. The phenomena of sunrise, sunset and changing of seasons is due to the motion of the earth.

An object may appear to be moving for one person and stationary for some other. For the passengers in a moving bus, the roadside trees appear to be moving backwards. A person standing on the road–side perceives the bus along with the passengers as moving. However, a passenger inside the bus sees his fellow passengers to be at rest.

Most motions are complex. Some objects may move in a straight line, others may take a circular path. Some may rotate and a few others may vibrate. There may be situations involving a combination of these. In this Course, we shall learn to describe the motion of objects along a straight line. We shall also learn to express such motions through simple equations and graphs.