AVERAGE SPEED LAB DATA
During a physics lab, a battery-powered toy car travels down a straight ramp covering a total distance of 12 meters in 4 seconds. What is the average speed of the toy car?
3 meters per second (12 meters divided by 4 seconds).
A school bus travels 10 miles in 15 minutes, stops for 5 minutes to pick up students, and then drives another 5 miles in 10 minutes. What was the total trip time and total distance traveled?
Total distance is 15 miles and total trip time is 30 minutes.
A student starts at his locker, walks 15 meters east down the hallway to get a book, and then turns around and walks 5 meters west toward his classroom. Calculate his total distance traveled and his net displacement.
Distance is 20 meters; Net displacement is 10 meters East.
A marching band member marches 20 steps forward, 20 steps left, 20 steps backward, and 20 steps right, landing exactly back on her starting mark. Describe the difference between her distance traveled and her displacement.
Her distance traveled is 80 steps, but her displacement is 0 steps because she returned to her starting position.
A speedometer on a car dashboard reads "65 MPH." Does this display represent the car's speed or the car's velocity? Explain your answer.
It represents speed because it only shows magnitude (how fast) and does not state a direction of motion.
Students test a motorized robot on a tiled floor. The robot moves a total distance of 45 centimeters in 15 seconds. Calculate the average speed of the robot.
3 centimeters per second (45 centimeters divided by 15 seconds).
Using the previous bus trip data (15 total miles traveled over a total time of 30 minutes or 0.5 hours), calculate the bus's overall average speed in miles per hour.
30 miles per hour (15 miles divided by 0.5 hours).
A soccer player runs 40 meters north down the field to steal the ball, but then gets pushed backward 10 meters south. If this entire play took 6 seconds, what was her overall velocity?
5 meters per second North (30 meters displacement North divided by 6 seconds).
Why can total distance traveled be equal to or greater than displacement, but displacement can never be greater than total distance?
Distance measures the entire ground covered along a path, while displacement is the shortest straight-line distance from start to finish.
Which of the following two statements describes velocity rather than speed?
Statement A: "The storm is moving at 25 kilometers per hour."
Statement B: "The storm is moving at 25 kilometers per hour heading Northwest."
Statement B describes velocity because it includes both speed (magnitude) and direction.
A student releases a marble down a track. Track section 1 takes 2 seconds for 20 centimeters. Track section 2 takes 3 seconds for 30 centimeters. What is the average speed for the entire 50 centimeter track?
10 centimeters per second (50 total centimeters divided by 5 total seconds).
A delivery driver travels 60 kilometers down a highway in 1 hour. She gets stuck in construction traffic for the next 30 minutes (0.5 hours), traveling only 15 kilometers. What is her average speed for the entire 1.5-hour delivery trip?
50 kilometers per hour (75 total kilometers divided by 1.5 total hours).
A swimmer dives into a 50-meter pool, swims to the opposite end in 25 seconds, turns around, and swims all the way back to the starting block in 35 seconds. What is his overall velocity for the entire swim?
0 meters per second (because his starting point and ending point are the same, making net displacement 0 meters).
A GPS navigation app in a car shows two values: Route A says "Drive 8 miles along winding city streets," while a straight line on the map between start and finish measures "5 miles directly East." Which measurement represents distance, and which represents displacement?
The 8 miles along city streets is distance; the 5 miles directly East is displacement.
A roller coaster train goes around a circular loop at a constant speed of 30 miles per hour. Explain why the train's velocity is constantly changing even though its speed stays the same.
Velocity includes direction. As the coaster moves along the circular loop, its direction of motion is constantly changing, which constantly changes its velocity.
In a drone flight test, a student records that her drone travels 120 meters in 8 seconds. A classmate claims his drone is faster because it went 90 meters in 5 seconds. Calculate both average speeds to determine whose drone was faster.
The classmate's drone was faster (18 meters per second compared to her drone at 15 meters per second).
A bicyclist rides 24 kilometers north in 2 hours. He stops to rest and eat lunch for 1 hour. Then he rides another 12 kilometers north in 1 hour. Calculate his overall average speed for the entire outing.
9 kilometers per hour (36 total kilometers divided by 4 total hours, including the rest time).
A cross-country runner travels 600 meters east in 100 seconds, turns around and runs 200 meters west in 100 seconds. Calculate both her average speed and her velocity for the full run.
Average speed is 4 meters per second (800 meters / 200 seconds); Velocity is 2 meters per second East (400 meters East / 200 seconds).
A race car driver completes 50 full laps around a 2-mile oval racetrack. What is the driver's total distance driven versus the driver's total displacement at the end of the race?
Total distance driven is 100 miles; Total displacement is 0 miles.
Two airplanes take off from the same airport at the exact same time. Airplane 1 flies at 400 miles per hour North, and Airplane 2 flies at 400 miles per hour South. Do these airplanes have the same speed? Do they have the same velocity?
They have the SAME speed (400 mph), but DIFFERENT velocities because they are traveling in opposite directions.
A student runs a 400-meter track during physical education class. He completes the first 200 meters in 30 seconds, but gets tired and takes 50 seconds to finish the final 200 meters. What is his overall average speed for the full lap?
5 meters per second (400 total meters divided by 80 total seconds).
A family drives 180 miles to an amusement park. They travel 120 miles in 2 hours on the highway, spend 30 minutes stuck at a toll booth moving 0 miles, and drive the remaining 60 miles on side roads in 1.5 hours. What is their average speed for the trip?
45 miles per hour (180 total miles divided by 4 total hours).
A hiking trail map shows a hiker walking 3 kilometers north in 1 hour, turning right to walk 4 kilometers east in 1 hour. The straight-line distance from the start point to the finish point is 5 kilometers northeast. Calculate the hiker's overall speed and overall velocity.
Average speed is 3.5 kilometers per hour (7 km / 2 hours); Velocity is 2.5 kilometers per hour Northeast (5 km NE / 2 hours).
Two students start at the flagpole. Student X walks in a straight line 100 meters south to the cafeteria. Student Y walks 100 meters in a zig-zag pattern through the courtyard to the cafeteria. Compare their total distances and net displacements.
Both students have the exact same displacement (100 meters South), but Student Y covered a greater total distance than Student X.
A satellite orbits Earth in a perfectly round path at a steady speed of 17,000 miles per hour. Identify two ways a rocket could change the satellite's velocity (Hint: what are the two portions of the concept of velocity).
By changing its speed (speeding up or slowing down).
By changing its direction of motion (altering its orbit path).