VelocityThe average speed of an object is defined as the distance traveled divided by the time elapsed. Velocity is a vector quantity, and average velocity can be defined as the displacement divided by the time. For the special case of straight line motion in the x direction, the average velocity takes the form: The units for velocity can be implied from the definition to be meters/second or in general any distance unit over any time unit. You can approach an expression for the instantaneous velocity at any point on the path by taking the limit as the time interval gets smaller and smaller. Such a limiting process is called a derivative and the instantaneous velocity can be defined as
|
Index Motion concepts | ||
|
Go Back |
Average Velocity, Straight LineThe average speed of an object is defined as the distance traveled divided by the time elapsed. Velocity is a vector quantity, and average velocity can be defined as the displacement divided by the time. For the special case of straight line motion in the x direction, the average velocity takes the form:Example for non-constant acceleration |
Index Motion concepts | ||
|
Go Back |
Average Velocity, GeneralThe average speed of an object is defined as the distance traveled divided by the time elapsed. Velocity is a vector quantity, and average velocity can be defined as the displacement divided by the time. For general cases involving non-constant acceleration, this definition must be applied directly because the straight line average velocity expressions do not work. |
Index Motion concepts | ||
|
Go Back |