MOVEMENT

UNDERSTANDING SPEED
 Speed
• Every object that moves has speed.
• Speed is the rate of movement of an
object.
• Speed shows how fast an object moves.
• The object that moves faster travels a
longer distance in a given time.
• The object that moves faster take a
shorter time to travel in given distance.
 Calculation of Speed
• Speed of a moving object can be calculate
if we know the distance it has travelled
and the time taken to travel the distance.
• The units for speed are:
a) cm per second (cm/s)
b) metre per second (m/s)
c) kilometre per hour (km/h)
• The speed of an object can be calculated
by using the following formula:

Distance
speed= ________
Time
• Examples:
a) A lorry takes three hours to reach a
destination of 240 km away.

speed = 240
3

= 80 km/h
• Examples:
b) A toy car takes two minutes to travel a
distance of 50 cm

speed = 50
2

= 25 cm/min
 Exercises
1. The table shows the results of an
investigation.
Toy car Time taken (s) Distance moved
(cm)
P 5 60
Q 5 50
R 5 80
S 5 40
a) Calculate the speed of each toy car.
P:___ Q:___ R:___ S:___
b) i) Which toy car is the fastest?
ii) Give one reason to support your
answer in (b) i
________________________________
c) Arrange the toy cars from the fastest to
the slowest.
________________________________
2. X,Y and Z in the diagram below show the
position of three railway stations.
X

160 km
Y Z
220 km

Train P leaves station X at 8.30 am and arrives at

station Y at 10.30 am. Then the train leaves
station Y at 10.40 and arrived at station Z two
hours later.
a)What is the speed of train P from station X to
station Y?
________________________________________
b) What is the speed of train P from station Y to
station Z?
_________________________________
c) What is the trend in speed of train P when it
travels from station X towards station Z?
_________________________________
d) What is the time taken by train P to travels from
station X to station Z?
__________________________________
e) Based on your answer in (d) calculate the
average speed of train P when it travels from
station X to station Z?