What is the formula for calculating average speed?

The formula for calculating average speed is total distance travelled divided by total time taken.

Average speed is a measure of the distance travelled per unit of time. It is calculated by dividing the total distance that something has travelled by the total amount of time it took to travel that distance. The formula is represented as: Average Speed = Total Distance / Total Time.

In physics, speed is a scalar quantity as it has magnitude but no direction. It's important to note that average speed does not tell us about the direction of the motion. It only gives us the rate at which distance is covered.

The units of average speed are typically kilometres per hour (km/h), metres per second (m/s), miles per hour (mph), or feet per second (ft/s), depending on the context.

For example, if a car travels 100 kilometres in 2 hours, the average speed of the car is 100 km divided by 2 hours, which equals 50 km/h. This means that, on average, the car was moving at a speed of 50 kilometres every hour.

Remember, the average speed is not always the actual speed at every moment during the trip. The car might have been moving faster or slower than 50 km/h at different times. But over the entire 2 hours, its average speed was 50 km/h.

In summary, average speed is a simple concept that gives us a broad understanding of the overall pace of a journey. It's a fundamental concept in physics and is crucial for understanding more complex topics like velocity and acceleration.