Average Speed? How do I calculate?

[aaquib]

Average Speed? How do I calculate??

How do I calculate average speed on a position time graph? Velocity time graph?


Thanks
Aaquib

 

[hunter151]

On a position vs time graph, the average velocity is found by dividing the total displacement by the total time. In other words, (position at final point - position at initial point) / (time at final point - time at initial point).

For a velocity vs time graph, you can simply do (Final velocity - initial velocity) / 2.

 

[aaquib]

On a position vs time graph, the average velocity is found by dividing the total displacement by the total time. In other words, (position at final point - position at initial point) / (time at final point - time at initial point).

For a velocity vs time graph, you can simply do (Final velocity - initial velocity) / 2.

For the velocity time graph, how do I get the average speed for the entire set of data? It starts at the origin, then goes up to (120,25) for A, and then the final point is F which is (720, -140)

 

[hunter151]

In that case you would have to find the total displacement of the object, and divide that by the time it traveled.

To find the displacement on a V(t) graph, you need to look at the area under the curve. In this case, you would get two triangles, one above and one below the t axis (assuming the lines connecting your points are straight). Subtract the area of the triangle under the t axis from the area of the triangle above the t axis, and divide this by total time traveled. You are subtracting area below from area above because the object is traveling with a negative velocity (backwards) in the region below the t axis.