2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Students are taught a rigorous process in their Statics and Dynamics courses on how to draw proper kinetic and free-body diagrams to subsequently use to simplify Newton’s and Euler’s 2nd Law. However, when it comes to a topic many struggle with such as relative motion, many introductory physics, fluid mechanics, and dynamics texts do not provide detailed enough guidance for students to follow in order to obtain a correct and useful diagrammatic representation of this important phenomenon. In this paper, a step-by-step process for drawing the relative velocity diagram for two particles is introduced and is then used to properly resolve the associated vector relation into its components. Three very different examples are provided to show the application of this diagrammatic approach. The value of incorporating the relative velocity diagram when solving comprehensive problems that involve relative motion is assessed through the evaluation of the performance of eight cohorts on two different assessments and their feedback in evaluations. A comparison of these cohorts suggests that integrating this step-by-step process into the lecture notes, as opposed to providing it through supplemental course material, may help improve student performance on exams.