9th Physics | Motion | Speed and Velocity
SPEED
The speed of a body tells us how slow or fast that body is moving. speed of a body is the distance travelled by it per unit time
Speed is represented by ‘v’, distance by ‘s’ and time by ‘t’.
Therefore
The S.I. unit of speed is
The speed of a running car is shown by an instrument called “SPEEDOMETER”. The distance travelled by the car is measured by another instrument called ODOMETER.
Average Speed
The average speed of a body is the total distance travelled divided by the total time taken to cover that distance.
Question: A body is moving along a straight line and covers 40 kms in first hour, 20 kms in second hour and 90 kms in third hour. Calculate the average speed of the whole journey.
Solution:
Speed of the car from A to B = 40 km / hour
Average speed of car from A to D =
=
= 50 km / h
Uniform speed or constant speed
A body has a uniform speed if it travels equal distances in equal intervals of time, howsoever small the time intervals may be
For example
Speed (A to B)
Speed (B to C)
Speed (C to D)
Non-uniform speed
A body has non-uniform speed if it travels unequal distances in equal intervals of time.
For example
Speed (A to B)
Speed (B to C)
Speed (C to D)
VELOCITY
Velocity of a body is the distance travelled by it per unit time in the given direction
The S.I. unit of velocity is
Therefore, 25 km/hr is SPEED and 25 km/hr towards North is VELOCITY.
The direction of velocity is the same as direction of displacement of the body.
Uniform velocity
A body is said to be in uniform velocity if it travels in a specified direction in a straight line and covers equal distances in equal intervals of time, howsoever small the time intervals may be.
Any change in velocity may occurs in three ways:
(a) by changing the speed of the body
(b) by keeping speed constant but changing the direction.
(c) by changing both speed and direction
Question: An object is moving along a straight line and covers 500 m towards east in 10 seconds. Calculate speed and velocity of the object.
Solution:
If a person is moving due East, 500 m in 10 s, in a straight line.
Therefore when the direction remains the same, velocity and speed have equal magnitude
Question: An object is moving along a straight road and covers 500 m in 10 seconds it returns from there and reaches the starting point in 10 seconds. Calculate speed and velocity for the whole journey.
Solution:
In this case the person goes from A to B and then returns back to A.
=
Therefore when there is a change in direction, velocity and speed have different magnitudes.
Average velocity
If a body has changing velocity, but the change is uniform, the average velocity can be calculated as
It is also represented as
where,
u = Initial velocity
v = Final velocity