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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.
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.
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 ...
Here, the Greek letter is used, per tradition, to mean "change in". A positive average velocity means that the position coordinate increases over the interval in question, a negative average velocity indicates a net decrease over that interval, and an average velocity of zero means that the body ends the time interval in the same place as it began.
In many engineering applications the local flow velocity vector field is not known in every point and the only accessible velocity is the bulk velocity or average flow velocity ¯ (with the usual dimension of length per time), defined as the quotient between the volume flow rate ˙ (with dimension of cubed length per time) and the cross sectional area (with dimension of square length):
In physics, drift velocity is the average velocity attained by charged particles, such as electrons, in a material due to an electric field. In general, an electron in a conductor will propagate randomly at the Fermi velocity, resulting in an average velocity of zero. Applying an electric field adds to this random motion a small net flow in one ...
Power is the rate with respect to time at which work is done; it is the time derivative of work: =, where P is power, W is work, and t is time.. We will now show that the mechanical power generated by a force F on a body moving at the velocity v can be expressed as the product: = =
A pendulum with a period of 2.8 s and a frequency of 0.36 Hz. For cyclical phenomena such as oscillations, waves, or for examples of simple harmonic motion, the term frequency is defined as the number of cycles or repetitions per unit of time.