Velocity

How fast, and which way

An interactive lesson with 7 steps, about 6 minutes: you predict, drag and solve, with instant feedback on every answer. It runs in your browser and needs JavaScript.

What you’ll learn

• Velocity $v = \Delta x / \Delta t$: the slope of the position–time graph.
• Velocity has a direction (a sign). Speed is its size.
• Average speed is total distance divided by total time, not the average of the speeds.

Steps

1. A strobe photo
2. Velocity is a slope
3. Hit the finish line
4. Read the graph
5. Speed vs. velocity
6. The road trip trap
7. Backwards