Question

A car travels 240 miles south in 3 hours. find the velocity of the car in mi/hr and m/s

Answer 1

We'll find the car's speed first, and then use that to find the velocity.

Speed = (distance covered) / (time to cover the distance)

Speed = (240 miles) / (3 hours)

Speed = (240/3) · (miles/hours)

Speed = 80 mile/hour

Now to convert the units, we'll use

-- 1 mile = 1,609 meters

-- 1 hour = 3,600 seconds

(80 miles/1 hour) · (1,609 meter/1 mile) · (1 hour/3,600 second) =

(80 · 1,609 · 1) / (1 · 1 · 3,600) (mile · meter · hour / hour · mile · second) =

35.76 meter/second

Now, to make a velocity, all we need to do is to add the direction to the speed.

So the car's velocity is 80 mi/hr south, or 35.76 meter/sec south .