Speed and Velocity

Just as distance and displacement have distinctly different meanings (despite their
similarities), so do speed and velocity. Speed is a scalar quantity that refers to "how fast an
object is moving." Speed can be thought of as the rate at which an object covers distance. A
fast-moving object has a high speed and covers a relatively large distance in a short amount
of time. Contrast this to a slow-moving object that has a low speed; it covers a relatively
small amount of distance in the same amount of time. An object with no movement at all has
a zero speed.

Velocity is a vector quantity that refers to "the rate at which an object changes its position."
Imagine a person moving rapidly - one step forward and one step back - always returning to
the original starting position. While this might result in a frenzy of activity, it would result in
a zero velocity. Because the person always returns to the original position, the motion would
never result in a change in position. Since velocity is defined as the rate at which the position
changes, this motion results in zero velocity. If a person in motion wishes to maximize their
velocity, then that person must make every effort to maximize the amount that they are
displaced from their original position. Every step must go into moving that person further
from where he or she started. For certain, the person should never change directions and
begin to return to the starting position.

Velocity is a vector quantity. As such, velocity is direction aware. When evaluating the
velocity of an object, one must keep track of direction. It would not be enough to say that an
object has a velocity of 55 mi/hr. One must include direction information in order to fully
describe the velocity of the object. For instance, you must describe an object's velocity as
being 55 mi/hr, east. This is one of the essential differences between speed and velocity.
Speed is a scalar quantity and does not keep track of direction; velocity is a vector quantity
and is direction aware.

The task of describing the direction of the velocity vector is easy. The
direction of the velocity vector is simply the same as the direction that an
object is moving. It would not matter whether the object is speeding up or
slowing down. If an object is moving rightwards, then its velocity is
described as being rightwards. If an object is moving downwards, then its
velocity is described as being downwards. So an airplane moving towards
the west with a speed of 300 mi/hr has a velocity of 300 mi/hr, west. Note
that speed has no direction (it is a scalar) and the velocity at any instant is
simply the speed value with a direction.

As an object moves, it often undergoes changes in speed. For example, during an average trip
to school, there are many changes in speed. Rather than the speed-o-meter maintaining a
steady reading, the needle constantly moves up and down to reflect the stopping and starting
and the accelerating and decelerating. One instant, the car may be moving at 50 mi/hr and
another instant, it might be stopped (i.e., 0 mi/hr). Yet during the trip to school the person
might average 32 mi/hr. The average speed during an entire motion can be thought of as the
average of all speedometer readings. If the speedometer readings could be collected at 1-
second intervals (or 0.1-second intervals or ... ) and then averaged together, the average speed
could be determined. Now that would be a lot of work. And fortunately, there is a shortcut.
Read on.

Calculating Average Speed and Average Velocity

The average speed during the course of a motion is often computed using the following
formula:

In contrast, the average velocity is often computed using this formula

Let's begin implementing our understanding of these formulas with the following problem:

Q: While on vacation, Lisa Carr traveled a total distance of 440 miles. Her trip took 8
hours. What was her average speed?

To compute her average speed, we simply divide the distance of travel by the time of travel.

That was easy! Lisa Carr averaged a speed of 55 miles per hour. She may not have been
traveling at a constant speed of 55 mi/hr. She undoubtedly, was stopped at some instant in
time (perhaps for a bathroom break or for lunch) and she probably was going 65 mi/hr at
other instants in time. Yet, she averaged a speed of 55 miles per hour. The above formula
represents a shortcut method of determining the average speed of an object.

Average Speed versus Instantaneous Speed

 Instantaneous Speed - the speed at any given instant in time.

You might think of the instantaneous speed as the speed that the speedometer reads at any
given instant in time and the average speed as the average of all the speedometer readings
during the course of the trip. Since the task of averaging speedometer readings would be quite
complicated (and maybe even dangerous), the average speed is more commonly calculated as
the distance/time ratio.

Moving objects don't always travel with erratic and changing speeds. Occasionally, an object
will move at a steady rate with a constant speed. That is, the object will cover the same
distance every regular interval of time. For instance, a cross-country runner might be running
with a constant speed of 6 m/s in a straight line for several minutes. If her speed is constant,
then the distance traveled every second is the same. The runner would cover a distance of 6
meters every second. If we could measure her position (distance from an arbitrary starting
point) each second, then we would note that the position would be changing by 6 meters each
second. This would be in stark contrast to an object that is changing its speed. An object with
a changing speed would be moving a different distance each second. The data tables below
depict objects with constant and changing speed.

Now let's consider the motion of that physics teacher again. The physics teacher walks 4
meters East, 2 meters South, 4 meters West, and finally 2 meters North. The entire motion
lasted for 24 seconds. Determine the average speed and the average velocity.
The physics teacher walked a distance of 12 meters in 24 seconds; thus, her average speed
was 0.50 m/s. However, since her displacement is 0 meters, her average velocity is 0 m/s.
Remember that the displacement refers to the change in position and the velocity is based
upon this position change. In this case of the teacher's motion, there is a position change of 0
meters and thus an average velocity of 0 m/s.

Here is another example similar to what was seen before in the discussion of distance and
displacement. The diagram below shows the position of a cross-country skier at various
times. At each of the indicated times, the skier turns around and reverses the direction of
travel. In other words, the skier moves from A to B to C to D.

Use the diagram to determine the average speed and the average velocity of the skier
during these three minutes. When finished, click the button to view the answer.

As a last example, consider a football coach pacing back and forth along the sidelines. The
diagram below shows several of coach's positions at various times. At each marked position,
the coach makes a "U-turn" and moves in the opposite direction. In other words, the coach
moves from position A to B to C to D.

What is the coach's average speed and average velocity? When finished, click the
button to view the answer.

In conclusion, speed and velocity are kinematic quantities that have distinctly different
definitions. Speed, being a scalar quantity, is the rate at which an object covers distance. The
average speed is the distance (a scalar quantity) per time ratio. Speed is ignorant of direction.
On the other hand, velocity is a vector quantity; it is direction-aware. Velocity is the rate at
which the position changes. The average velocity is the displacement or position change (a
vector quantity) per time ratio.