The average speed of an object is calculated from the total distance travelled and the total time taken.
Note that this is the average speed over the whole distance and not the instantaneous speed at any one instant. This can also be written as
A motion sensor and data logger can be used to measure the speed of an object.
A distance-time graph can be used to represent the motion of objects.
The speed is the gradient of the graph.
The object moves a distance of 600m in 50 seconds.
so the average speed of the object is 600/50 = 12 ms-1.
The greater the gradient, the greater the speed.
Instantaneous Speed
Instantaneous speed is the speed of the object over a very short interval of time.
The speed is obtained by calculating the gradient of the tangent to the curve at that particular time. The greater the gradient of the tangent, the greater the speed.
Note that this is the average speed over the whole distance and not the instantaneous speed at any one instant. This can also be written as
A motion sensor and data logger can be used to measure the speed of an object.
A distance-time graph can be used to represent the motion of objects.
The speed is the gradient of the graph.
The object moves a distance of 600m in 50 seconds.
so the average speed of the object is 600/50 = 12 ms-1.
The greater the gradient, the greater the speed.
Instantaneous Speed
Instantaneous speed is the speed of the object over a very short interval of time.
The speed is obtained by calculating the gradient of the tangent to the curve at that particular time. The greater the gradient of the tangent, the greater the speed.