document.write( "Question 633862: A car travels to the east from City A to City B, it takes 2 hours, and the road mileage is 100 miles. The map shows that the cities are only 80 miles apart. What is the average velocity? \n" ); document.write( "

Algebra.Com's Answer #399232 by Edwin McCravy(20060) $\"\"$ $\"About$

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A car travels to the east from City A to City B, it takes 2 hours, and the road mileage is 100 miles. The map shows that the cities are only 80 miles apart. What is the average velocity?
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document.write( "There is a difference between SPEED and VELOCITY.\r\n" );
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document.write( "Speed is a SCALAR quantity. It has magnitude only.\r\n" );
document.write( "Velocity is a VECTOR quantity. It has both magnitude and direction.\r\n" );
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document.write( "If you had been asked the average SPEED, the answer would have been 100/2 or 50\r\n" );
document.write( "miles/hour.\r\n" );
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document.write( "However you were asked for the average VELOCITY, you must specify both a\r\n" );
document.write( "magnitude and a direction.  So the average velocity has a magnitude of 80/2 =\r\n" );
document.write( "40 mile/hour in the EAST direction.  IOW it's the same as if you could have\r\n" );
document.write( "driven EAST as the crow flies at 40mph.\r\n" );
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document.write( "Edwin

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