Question

A football is thrown due north across a 40 meter river and it takes 2 seconds to cover that distance.

Answer 1

Answer:

I. Speed = 20m/s

II. Velocity = 20m/s due North.

Explanation:

Given the following data;

Distance = 40m

Time = 2secs

To find the speed;

Mathematically, speed is given by the formula;

$Speed = \frac{distance}{time}$

Substituting into the equation, we have;

$Speed = \frac{40}{2}$

Speed = 20m/s.

In physics, we use the same formula for calculating speed and velocity. The only difference is that speed is a scalar quantity and as such has magnitude but no direction while velocity is a vector quantity and as such it has both magnitude and direction.

$Velocity = \frac{distance}{time}$

Therefore, the velocity is 20m/s due North.