ANSWERS: 2
  • I believe that speed is just how fast something is going, and Velocity is the speed of something and a given direction.
  • Thanks for you question. In everyday life, the difference between "speed" and "velocity" is usually trivial. However, when trying to describe the world using mathematics, the difference becomes more important. Velocity has both a magnitude (how fast is it moving?) AND a direction (which way is it moving?). Conversely, Speed is defined as just the magnitude part of velocity (how fast is it going?) To understand why this might be important, consider a race car running around a track. The driver loses control and it starts heading towards a wall. Let's assume the SPEED of the car is 100 mph. If the VELOCITY of the car is 99 mph down the track and 1 mph towards the wall, then the car will hit the wall lightly and probably just bend the bodywork. On the other hand, if the VELOCITY of the car is 50 mph down the track and 50 mph towards the wall, then the car will hit the wall hard and cause a lot of damage. In each case, the SPEED of the car is the same, but the VELOCITY of the car is different. (Note: The numbers I gave are not mathematically accurate (I didn't use vector addition) but they illustrate the concept) I hope this helps.

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