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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 ...
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 non-negative scalar quantity. [1] The average speed of an object in an interval of time is the distance travelled by the object divided ...
The Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution applies fundamentally to particle velocities in three dimensions, but turns out to depend only on the speed (the magnitude of the velocity) of the particles. A particle speed probability distribution indicates which speeds are more likely: a randomly chosen particle will have a speed selected randomly from ...
Equation [3] involves the average velocity v + v 0 / 2 . Intuitively, the velocity increases linearly, so the average velocity multiplied by time is the distance traveled while increasing the velocity from v 0 to v, as can be illustrated graphically by plotting velocity against time as a straight line graph. Algebraically, it follows ...
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.
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.
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.
Instantaneous velocity can be defined as the limit of the average velocity as the time interval shrinks to zero: = (+) (). Acceleration is to velocity as velocity is to position: it is the derivative of the velocity with respect to time.