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How do I calculate average velocity

User Erenon
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1 Answer

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Average velocity has two parts: Its magnitude (size) and its direction.

Its magnitude is

(straight-line distance between start-point and end-point, regardless of the route that's actually followed from start to finish) divided by (time taken to travel from start to finish).

Its direction is

(direction from start-point to end-point)

Notice that straight from this definition, the average velocity of going around a full circle is zero, no matter how fast you traveled. That's because the size of the average velocity is calculated from the straight-line distance from start-point to end-point, and that's zero if you finish at the same point you started from.

User Peter Wooster
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