Rates

A rate is a comparison of two different quantities.

Example:

492 people live in an area of

Express this as a rate in its simplest terms.

Solution:
492 people in
=
?
= 41
Average Speed
Average speed is one of the most commonly used rates.

Jessica Ennis ran her 0.8km Olympic

heptathlon race in a time of 2min 8.65s.
What was her average speed?

?
Answer = 6.22m/s

The formula relating speed-distance time:

𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 d
𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑=
𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒
s t
The unit of speed might for example be m/s or kmph.
How does the unit help us remember the formula?
Examples
1. A bus travels 210 km in three hours,
what is its average speed in km/h?
Given: Distance=210 km, Time=3h d
Solution:
s t
?
Its average speed is 70km/h. 3. How long would it take to cover 200 km
at a speed of 80 km/h?
2. I walk at 4.5km/h. How far can I walk
in hours at the same speed? Given: Distance=200 km, Speed= 80 km/h
Solution:
Given: Speed= 4.5km/h, Time=2.5h
Solution:
Distance=s x t
?
It would take 2.5 hours.
Distance= 4.5 x 2.5=11.25km
I can walk 11.25 km.
?
Quickfire Qs

Speed Distance Time

2m/s 10m ? 5s

5m/s 24m 4.8s ? d

?
0.2km/s 50km 250s
s t
5km/h 10km? 7200s
Considering total time/distance
Pippin the cat runs to the end of my garden at 10mph and back at 20mph. What was
her average speed?
(Tip: It helps to lay out your speed/distance/time information in a table)

10mph

20mph
Click for
FROST MANOR
Catimation

Let’s set distance arbitrarily for now so

Period 1 Period 2 Overall that numbers are easy. It won’t affect
the final answer.
Speed ?
10 mph ?
20 mph ?
Distance ?
20 miles ?
20 miles ?
40 miles Speed mph ?
Time ?
2 hours ?
1 hour ?
3 hours
Considering total time/distance
We could also do it algebraically to keep the distance general.

10mph

20mph

FROST MANOR

Period 1 Period 2 Overall

Speed 10 mph
? ?
20 mph ? Speed mph
?
Distance
?
miles
?
miles
?
miles
Time hours hour hours
? ? ?
Test Your Understanding

1 Papa Smurf walked 10m at 5 m/s from A to B, and then 5m at 10m/s from B to C.
What was Papa Smurf’s average speed across the journey?
A to B B to C Overall
Speed 5m/s 10 m/s 6 m/s?
10m? ?
Distance 5m 15m
?
Time 2 seconds 0.5 seconds 2.5s
?

2 Bob the Builder needs to travel to a building site. He drives the first part of the
journey of 10 km at 20 km/h. The total journey time is 1 hour. What speed did
he drive for the remainder of the journey if his average speed across the whole
journey was 40 km/h?
1st 2nd Overall
Speed 20 km/h 60 km/h 40 km/h
Distance 10 km? 30 km? 40 km?
Time 0.5 hr 0.5 hr 1 hr
Seatwork #3: Average Speed (Copy in your notebook)
1. A horse runs for 1 hours at a speed of 8 m.p.h.
How far does it run?

2. In the 1996 Olympics Donovan Bailey won the

100m in 9.81 seconds and Michael Johnson won
the 200m in 19.37 seconds. Who ran at the faster
average speed?

3. Sarah goes up a hill and then down again the

same way. On the way up she averages 2 miles
per hour. On the way down she averages 4 miles
per hour. What is Sarah’s average speed in miles
per hour for the whole journey? Give an exact
answer.