Final answer:
The rate of keying speed is calculated by dividing the total number of words keyed by the time taken. This process is similar to calculating average speed in physics, which involves dividing distance by time to obtain the result in consistent units.
Step-by-step explanation:
The measure of the rate of keying speed is calculated by dividing total standard five-stroke words keyed by the time required to key those words. This is analogous to measuring speed in physics, where you divide the distance by time, using consistent units to get the average speed. Similarly, to find a person's typing speed, we measure the amount of text entered and divide it by the time it takes to type that text.
The measure of the rate of keying speed can be found by dividing the total number of standard five-stroke words keyed by the time required to key those words.
For example, if a person typed 100 five-stroke words and it took them 10 minutes to do so, the rate of keying speed would be 10 words per minute.
This calculation helps determine how quickly a person can key words and is often used to assess typing proficiency.
To ensure accuracy, a user may take multiple readings of their keying speed and then average them out. This is similar to how one might calculate the speed of sound by averaging multiple time readings for sound to travel a certain distance. When precise measurements are required, for instance, measuring the wing beats of a hummingbird, scientists may use milliseconds. Likewise, when measuring typing speed, we may need to be precise and use seconds or even parts of a second to measure quick bursts of typing.
As speed is a scalar quantity, direction is not a factor in this measurement. Estimating the reasonableness of the computed keying speed can also help in assessing skills, much like estimating if an athlete's running speed is reasonable for a sprint.