What is speed?
Speed is a way of saying how far something goes in a certain time. This means that in order to work out speed we need to know the distance and the time. This time could be in seconds (s), minutes (m) or hours (h). Distance could me measured in mm, cm, m or km.
In the UK we use two different sorts of measurements, metric and imperial so it can be confusing. Imperial measurements are things like miles per hour (mph) and measuring distances in feet, yards and inches. Metric is using metres, centimetres and measuring mass in Kg and grams.
Working it out
The equation triangle on the right shows the relationship between speed, distance and time.
Remember when using equation triangles you cover up the one you want to find. If the letters are side by side then you need to times the numbers together. If they are one above the other then the top one is divided by the bottom one.
That means that speed = distance/time.
Units
Speed can be measured in different units, to make things easy the most common unit is metres per second or m/s.
Some questions may use minutes or hours and you will have to change them into seconds.
Remember that:
1 minutes = 60 seconds
1 hour = 3600 seconds
Rearranging the equation
If you know the speed of something it can be used with the time or distance to find out the missing information.
Time = speed / distance
Distance = speed x time
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