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Different from instantaneous speed, average speed is defined as the total distance covered divided by the time interval. For example, if a distance of 80 kilometres is driven in 1 hour, the average speed is 80 kilometres per hour. Likewise, if 320 kilometres are travelled in 4 hours, the average speed is also 80 kilometres per hour.
In terms of a displacement-time (x vs. t) graph, the instantaneous velocity (or, simply, velocity) can be thought of as the slope of the tangent line to the curve at any point, and the average velocity as the slope of the secant line between two points with t coordinates equal to the boundaries of the time period for the average velocity.
In contrast to an average velocity, referring to the overall motion in a finite time interval, the instantaneous velocity of an object describes the state of motion at a specific point in time. It is defined by letting the length of the time interval Δ t {\displaystyle \Delta t} tend to zero, that is, the velocity is the time derivative of the ...
An instantaneous rate of change is equivalent to a derivative. For example, the average speed of a car can be calculated using the total distance traveled between two points, divided by the travel time. In contrast, the instantaneous velocity can be determined by viewing a speedometer.
Kinematics is a subfield of physics and mathematics, developed in classical mechanics, that describes the motion of points, bodies (objects), and systems of bodies (groups of objects) without considering the forces that cause them to move. [ 1 ][ 2 ][ 3 ] Kinematics, as a field of study, is often referred to as the "geometry of motion" and is ...
Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity. At any point on a trajectory, the magnitude of the acceleration is given by the rate of change of velocity in both magnitude and direction at that point. The true acceleration at time t is found in the limit as time interval Δt → 0 of Δv/Δt.
In mathematics, the root mean square (abbrev. RMS, RMS or rms) of a set of numbers is the square root of the set's mean square. 1 Given a set , its RMS is denoted as either or . The RMS is also known as the quadratic mean (denoted ), [ 2 ][ 3 ] a special case of the generalized mean. The RMS of a continuous function is denoted and can be ...
In mathematics education, calculus is an abbreviation of both infinitesimal calculus and integral calculus, which denotes courses of elementary mathematical analysis. In Latin, the word calculus means “small pebble”, (the diminutive of calx, meaning "stone"), a meaning which still persists in medicine. Because such pebbles were used for ...