Motion and forces Study Guide

Speed is a measure of how quickly an object is moving. It is defined as the distance an object travels per unit of time. The standard unit for speed in physics is metres per second (m/s). We can use a simple relationship between speed, distance, and time to calculate any one of these quantities if the other two are known. Distance is the total length covered by a moving object, measured in metres (m), and time is the duration of the movement, measured in seconds (s). These equations are fundamental for describing motion in physics.

Speed is a measure of how fast an object is moving, calculated as the distance travelled per unit of time. Different objects and phenomena have characteristic speeds that are useful to recall for comparison and problem-solving. For instance, the speed of sound is significantly faster than typical human movement, while wind speeds can vary greatly but are generally much lower than the speed of light. Knowing these typical values helps develop an intuitive understanding of scale in physics and everyday situations.