Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Using this equation for an average speed of 80 kilometres per hour on a 4-hour trip, the distance covered is found to be 320 kilometres. Expressed in graphical language, the slope of a tangent line at any point of a distance-time graph is the instantaneous speed at this point, while the slope of a chord line of the same graph is the average ...
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 ...
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 ...
Classical mechanics is the branch of physics used to describe the motion of macroscopic objects. [1] It is the most familiar of the theories of physics. The concepts it covers, such as mass, acceleration, and force, are commonly used and known. [2] The subject is based upon a three-dimensional Euclidean space with fixed axes, called a frame of ...
Velocity is a physical vector quantity: both magnitude and direction are needed to define it. The scalar absolute value 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 metres per ...
In physics, there are equations in every field to relate physical quantities to each other and perform calculations. Entire handbooks of equations can only summarize most of the full subject, else are highly specialized within a certain field. Physics is derived of formulae only.
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.
Calculus gives the means to define an instantaneous velocity, a measure of a body's speed and direction of movement at a single moment of time, rather than over an interval. One notation for the instantaneous velocity is to replace Δ {\displaystyle \Delta } with the symbol d {\displaystyle d} , for example, v = d s d t . {\displaystyle v ...