Whats the difference between speed and velocity?

Although these two words can be used interchangably they are very very different. Its easier to explain if you break down their equatoins.

Speed = distance / time
Velocity = displacement / time

The difference between distance and displacement is difficulat to explain but is best described as the following:

Distance is a scalar property that refers to how much ground an oject has covered during its motion.

whereas 

Displacement is a vector quantity that refers to how far our of place an object is, i.e the objects overall change in position.

The differences in these will become more apparent when studying forces and equations of motion so do not worry if you cannot get your head around the definitions at this instant

MG
Answered by Michael G. Physics tutor

9094 Views

See similar Physics GCSE tutors

Related Physics GCSE answers

All answers ▸

Explain how the evaporation of a liquid causes the temperature of the remaining liquid to decrease.


Houses lose majority of their energy through the roof and windows. State the three methods of energy transfer. For the roof and windows respectively, describe one adaptation that could be made to improve their efficiency and explain their method.


A car horn has a frequency of 680 Hz and a wavelength of 50cm. Calculate the speed of the sound waves produced by the car horn:


A 2 kW electric fire is switched on for 30 minutes. How many Units of electricity does it use?


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2025 by IXL Learning