Explainer – 13 – Speed vs Velocity 

In all Cars and Motorcycles we have speedometers which tells us at what speed the vehicle is moving at that instant of time. Speed is the total distance travelled by time taken [d/t]

If a vehicle takes 4hrs to cover a distance of 240km then the average speed of the vehicle throughout the trip = total distance travelled/total time taken 

=240/4

=60km/hr [unit is mostly km/hr]

To change the unit km/hr to m/s we will multiply the value from 5/18

So in this scenario, to convert 60km/hr in m/s 

-> 60 * 5/18 

-> 50/3

-> 16.67 m/s approximately.

So this is speed so what is velocity then,

We can understand velocity with this simple formula change. As in speed it is distance by time, for velocity it will become DISPLACEMENT by TIME

If we take then same scenario then the velocity = speed but if we will change it and say that we go 200 km and come back 200 km so the speed = 400/8, then the speed = 50 km/hr or 13.89m/s approximately, but the velocity will be 0/8 since the displacement will be 0m because the initial and final point is the same and therefore the velocity will be 0 m/s [SI unit of both speed and velocity is m/s]

So we can conclude that :-

SPEED is Distance/Time

VELOCITY is Displacement/Time