Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
kinematics

kinematics

1 8.4
The study of how things move without looking at forces or mass
  • noun
  • /ˌkɪnəˈmætɪks/
  • Specialized
: cinemática
  • So what we're going to do, we're going to find the forward kinematics for this arm.
  • kinematics and kinetics
  • kinematics in clinical gait
  • joint kinematics

So that's our first lesson on kinematics.

Examples

  • Changes in joint kinematics during walking, as found in this study, probably also reflect neurologic decline.

    Academic text (1999)

  • So we can look at both sides of the kinematics of a crash.

    Yellow Yellow Yellow: The Indycar Safety Team (2017)

  • So that's where kinematics is at the core of the subject.

  • So it's not hard to see that the kinematics of transmission is governed by the equation.

    Academic text (2001)

  • So I'm going to illustrate the idea of kinematics by taking the simplest possible example.

  • "To be competitive, all these teams have started using software to analyze suspension, kinematics, and airflow around their vehicles," Coric said.

    Academic text (2008)

  • As in all inelastic scattering processes, conservation of energy and momentum dictate the kinematics of light scattering.

    Academic text (1994)

  • The study of kinematics helps us understand how objects move through space without considering the forces acting on them.

  • In physics class, we learned that kinematics involves analyzing the motion of moving cars during a race.

  • The professor explained that kinematics focuses on the paths of objects rather than the reasons for their movement.

Surface Forms

kinematics singular
kinematics plural

Morphology

kinematics = kinematic (semi-transparent) = kinemat + ic + s

Derived from the combining form 'kinemat-' plus academic suffix '-ics'; the relation to motion is clear if the learner knows 'kinematic' or the '-ics' pattern, but the root itself is not a standalone common word.

Etymology

Kinematics comes from the Greek root kinesis meaning 'movement'. Think of cinema, which shows moving pictures, or the word kinetic, both of which show the idea of motion. So kinematics is the study of motion itself, without looking at the forces that cause it.