Displacement, Average Speed, and Average Velocity

Average speed is distance/time. In summary, The turtle's displacement was 23 meters, its average speed was 2.3 m/min and its average velocity was 2.9 m/min.
  • #1
person100
1
0
Okay so I don't understand how to do the displacement of distance and time on a graph. I also need help with figuring out the average speed and average velocity. The graph deals with a Turtle's journey.
On the Y-axis of the graph is distance in meters and the x-axis is time in minutes.
The y-axis goes from 1-23 and the x going by threes all the up to 66.
So the coordinates to the dots on the graph are the following: (3,2) (6,4) (12,6) (18,8) (24,10) (28,8) (30,7) (35,10) (40,12) (46,14) (51,14) (54,17) (57,20) (65,20) (66,23) *Also the total distance the turtle traveled was 29 m.

The following question's are:
1. What was the turtle's displacement?
2. What was the turtle's average speed?
3. What was the turtle's average velocity?



My answers so far:
1. 23-0=23 23/66= 2.9 m
2. 29/66=2.3 m
3. I don't even know where to begin for this one...
 
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  • #2
Your first two answers are correct, except that you have the units wrong on one of them.
Displacement is a vector, velocity is a vector. Average velocity is displacement/time.
 

Related to Displacement, Average Speed, and Average Velocity

What is displacement?

Displacement is the straight-line distance between an object's starting point and ending point, measured in a specific direction. It is a vector quantity that takes into account both magnitude (distance) and direction.

How is displacement different from distance?

Distance is the total length of the path traveled by an object, regardless of direction. Displacement, on the other hand, takes into account the specific direction an object traveled in and only measures the straight-line distance between the starting and ending points.

What is average speed?

Average speed is the total distance traveled by an object divided by the total time it took to travel that distance. It is a scalar quantity that only takes into account the numerical value of an object's speed, without considering direction.

How does average speed differ from average velocity?

While both average speed and average velocity are measures of an object's movement, average velocity also takes into account the direction of motion. It is calculated by dividing the total displacement of an object by the total time it took to travel that distance.

Can an object have a non-zero average velocity but a zero average speed?

Yes, this is possible if an object moves in a straight line, but its starting and ending points are the same. In this case, the total displacement would be non-zero, resulting in a non-zero average velocity, but the total distance traveled would be zero, resulting in a zero average speed.

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