Join the new world

Already have an account? Login



What is this?

You are reading an article written by a citizen of eRepublik, an immersive multiplayer strategy game based on real life countries. Create your own character and help your country achieve its glory while establishing yourself as a war hero, renowned publisher or finance guru.

Speed and Velocity

Day 1,939, 00:11 • Published in Australia

• by Jakesweet27

All of EAus is oozing knowledge from my previous articles but get ready to expand your brains some more with speed and velocity.

The difference between speed and velocity is that velocity is speed with a direction vector associated with it. It's that direction vector that makes them different. Let's back up a bit and review.

Speed is displacement (distance traveled) per unit time. Velocity is displacement (distance traveled) per unit time in a given direction. The "directionality" associated with velocity makes it a vector quantity, while speed is a scalar quantity.

The main difference between them in everyday life is that "speed" is usually used
properly, but "velocity" is usually used Improperly. As you can see, "velocity" is not
just a bigger word that you can use for "speed" when you want to sound smart.

-- "30 miles per hour" is a speed

-- "30 miles per hour north" is a velocity

-- "30 miles per hour north" and "30 miles per hour west" are the same speed but different velocities.

Have fun future Isaac Newtons.

Comments

Miyagiyoda Day 1,939, 01:50

Does a moment have a thickness and a size? Is it measurable? Are there a finite number of mements in the history of the universe? Does this thus make speed as relative as velocity?

Jakesweet27 Day 1,939, 02:01

no i do not think a measurement of time has a mass at all.

Miyagiyoda Day 1,939, 02:13

Newtonian time is part of the fundamental structure of the universe—a dimension independent of events, in which events occur in sequence.

Leibniz and Kant hold the opposing view that time does not refer to any kind of "container" that events and objects "move through", nor to any entity that "flows", but that it is instead part of a fundamental intellectual structure (together with space and number) within which humans sequence and compare events. This second view posits that time is neither an event nor a thing, and thus is not itself measurable nor can it be travelled.

So, it either has dimensions, making it measurable; or not, making all the other definitions that rely on it subjective.

Jakesweet27 Day 1,939, 02:51

theories! ALL THEORIES!

Majester Day 1,939, 06:41

Only because nobody actually knows. This is disturbing considering time (seconds) one of the 7 cornerstones of SI units.

Time is either "what clocks measure" or "what keeps everything from happening at once". The former implies its a construct and thus intellectual, like numbers (Liebniz/Kant). The latter implies its physical or a dimension (Newton) and thus velocity has a circular definition.

supereviloverlord Day 1,940, 03:53

Or you could go by relativity and accept that both those ideas are nonsense (observers don't always agree on the order of events and time is very much real, or possibly imaginary but not in the meaning uninformed philosophers use).

Really the only way to rescue the idea of time not being a dimension similar to the three dimensions of space is solipsism which is usually rejected out of hand for very good reasons.

supereviloverlord Day 1,940, 03:54

There is planck time.

kerna96 Day 1,939, 02:26

"speed is displacement (distance traveled) per unit time."

😁this is technically incorrect, displacement itself is a vector quantity.
I believe the term you were looking for is 'distance travelled.'

This is because distance travelled is the total distance travelled from A to B, no matter if it was direct or not.
Displacement on the other hand is the 'direct' distance from A to B, which will give a different result than distance travelled.

for example, if ~Roba~ chased a cowardly eChilian 30M west then 10M north and caught him after 10 seconds, his distance travelled would be 40M but his displacement would be ~31.6M

hope this helped 🙂

Valentyme Day 1,939, 03:30

The difference between speed and velocity is stupid, we should just get rid of one of them.

kerna96 Day 1,939, 03:58

please don't try to break physics, the scientists don't like it.

Valentyme Day 1,939, 04:09

Not true, I'm a scientist and I would enjoy breaking this. I think the statement you are looking for is non-biological scientist wouldn't like it 😉

Jakesweet27 Day 1,939, 04:30

i'm not going to lie i wouldn't mind if the two words meanings blurred into the same thing

kerna96 Day 1,939, 04:31

well, yes, but there are probably practical thing that they do with it, I cant remember anything off the top of my head.

Majester Day 1,939, 05:24

Velocity is used to determine relative displacement whereas speed measures total time over a distance. Basically, speed is useful for seeing how fast a F1 car laps the circuit... since technically the total velocity is 0 every time the start line is crossed because there is no total displacement.

kerna96 Day 1,940, 01:23

thank you majester, my mind had shut down last night 😛