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L T−1. In kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as v) of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a scalar quantity. [1] The average speed of an object in an interval of time is the distance travelled by the object divided by the ...
Kinetic theory of gases. The temperature of the ideal gas is proportional to the average kinetic energy of its particles. The size of helium atoms relative to their spacing is shown to scale under 1,950 atmospheres of pressure. The atoms have an average speed relative to their size slowed down here two trillion fold from that at room temperature.
Velocity is a physical vector quantity: both magnitude and direction are needed to define it. The scalar absolute value (magnitude) of velocity is called speed, being a coherent derived unit whose quantity is measured in the SI (metric system) as metres per second (m/s or m⋅s −1). For example, "5 metres per second" is a scalar, whereas "5 ...
For instance, if a vehicle travels a certain distance d outbound at a speed x (e.g. 60 km/h) and returns the same distance at a speed y (e.g. 20 km/h), then its average speed is the harmonic mean of x and y (30 km/h), not the arithmetic mean (40 km/h). The total travel time is the same as if it had traveled the whole distance at that average speed.
Maxwell–Boltzmann. In physics (in particular in statistical mechanics), the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution, or Maxwell (ian) distribution, is a particular probability distribution named after James Clerk Maxwell and Ludwig Boltzmann. It was first defined and used for describing particle speeds in idealized gases, where the particles move ...
In gravitationally bound systems, the orbital speed of an astronomical body or object (e.g. planet, moon, artificial satellite, spacecraft, or star) is the speed at which it orbits around either the barycenter (the combined center of mass) or, if one body is much more massive than the other bodies of the system combined, its speed relative to the center of mass of the most massive body.
Classical mechanics. The relative velocity, denoted (also or ), is the velocity vector of an object or observer B in the rest frame of another object or observer A. The relative speed is the vector norm of the relative velocity.
The mean speed theorem, also known as the Merton rule of uniform acceleration, [1] was discovered in the 14th century by the Oxford Calculators of Merton College, and was proved by Nicole Oresme. It states that a uniformly accelerated body (starting from rest, i.e. zero initial velocity) travels the same distance as a body with uniform speed ...