Question

Under what condition is the magnitude of the average velocity of an object equal to its average speed?

Answer 1

Step 1: Average Velocity:

1. Average velocity is defined as the total displacement of a body in a given interval of time.
2. It is a vector quantity.
3. The unit of velocity is $\raisebox{1ex}{$\text{m}$}\!\left/ \!\raisebox{-1ex}{$\text{s}$}\right.$ or $\raisebox{1ex}{$\text{ft}$}\!\left/ \!\raisebox{-1ex}{$\text{min}$}\right.$.

Step 2: Average speed and velocity

1. Average speed is defined as the total distance covered by a body in a given interval of time.
2. Average speed is scalar quantity.
3. When the body is moving in a straight path then in this case the displacement and distance covered by the particle is same in given interval of time.

Step 3: Diagram of the same average speed and average velocity is as follows:

Hence, when the body is moving in a straight path in this case the average velocity and the average speed is same.