What is the formula for average speed?

The formula for average speed is total distance divided by total time.

To calculate average speed, you need to know two key pieces of information: the total distance travelled and the total time taken to travel that distance. The formula can be written as:

\[ \text{Average Speed} = \frac{\text{Total Distance}}{\text{Total Time}} \]

This means you take the total distance covered during the journey and divide it by the total time it took to cover that distance. For example, if you travelled 150 kilometres in 3 hours, your average speed would be:

\[ \text{Average Speed} = \frac{150 \text{ km}}{3 \text{ hours}} = 50 \text{ km/h} \]

It's important to ensure that the units for distance and time are consistent. If the distance is in kilometres and the time is in hours, the average speed will be in kilometres per hour (km/h). If the distance is in metres and the time is in seconds, the average speed will be in metres per second (m/s).

Understanding average speed is useful in many real-life situations, such as planning travel times or analysing the performance of vehicles. It gives a simple way to describe how fast something is moving on average, even if the speed varies during the journey. Remember, average speed does not account for changes in speed during the trip; it’s a straightforward calculation that provides an overall rate of travel.