Last Unit2: Everyday Travel

A few weeks ago, our class finished up the unit on kinematics. Included in kinematics is motion, distance, displacement, and speed. When you are riding in a car, you are in the middle of physics. Here is a picture of the odometer and speedometer in the car. The speedometer shows the speed at anytime during travel. You may be going down the freeway at 60 mph, then hit traffic, and youre stuck for five mintues. Finally traffic opens up and you reach your destination with a final time of 40 minutes. Average speed equals total distance travelled over total time, so if you travelled 15 miles in 40 minutes, the average speed would be 37.5 mph. Although you may have been going 60 at some points because of the stop in traffic the average speed turned out to be 37.5 mph. The odometer shows total distance travelled since it got on the road. If you leave your garage and travel 15 miles then return and park in the same place, your displacement is zero because you are back to where you started. This is how distance, and speed play a key role in something we do everyday. It might not have much meaning but it is there and is around us everyday.