Answer to Question #137398 in Physics for irene

Question

What is the difference between average speed and average velocity of a motion

Answer 1

Speed is a scalar quantity and velocity is a vector one. Thus, the average speed is:

$$speed = \dfrac{path}{time}$$

where $path$ is the length of particle's trajectory and $time$ is the total time of the motion.

The average velocity is:

$$\mathbf{v} = \dfrac{\mathbf{d}}{t}$$

where $\mathbf{d}$ is the total displacement of the particle (vector quantity) and $t$ is the total time of the motion.