Question

A man goes for a trip in his car and returns after four hours. What is the average speed and average velocity of the car during this period?

Answer 1

The actual distance travelled is calculated by the simple formula below: Actual distance travelled = [(Final odometer reading) – (initial odometer reading)].

Therefore the distance travelled is (12940 - 12320) km.= 620 km
Total time taken to cover the 620 km distance is 4 hours.

average speed =$\frac{distance}{time}$ = $\frac{620}{4}$
= 155km/hr

• The man goes for the trip and returns to his initial position. So total displacement is equal to 0. Therefore average velocity is equal to 0.

• Therefore we can say that distance travelled is equal to 620 km, the time is taken to cover the distance is 4 hours, the average speed is 155 km/hr and the average velocity is equal to 0.