⚡ SPEED: HOW FAST ARE THINGS?
PAGE 1 OF 5 · THE BIG IDEA: HOW FAST?
TWO INGREDIENTS
SPEED = HOW QUICK THE TRIP
Speed answers: “If I go for a while, how much path do I pack per tick of the clock?” In clean symbols you often see v = d / t for a steady story: d is the distance you moved along the path, t is the time it took, and v is the speed (size only here). If you stop to tie your shoe, a single number may still be a useful average over the whole trip, even if you were not a robot the whole time.
Little-kid line: “Fast = lots of playground gobbled in a small snack of minutes.”
Little-kid line: “Fast = lots of playground gobbled in a small snack of minutes.”
AVERAGE VS INSTANT (FIRST PASS)
Average speed = total distance ÷ total time (same path, whole trip). A car’s needle jumping around is closer to an instant read — we unpack that in later adventures. Units: if d is in metres and t in seconds, v is in metres per second (m/s). Kilometres per hour (km/h) is the road friend in many countries.
ZOOM!
BIKE BATTLE
🚴 The same 100 m in less time = faster. Time is the fair tie‑breaker for “who is quicker.”
RAIL PACE
🚄 Long trains chew huge distance per hour — a different scale than a sprint, same idea.