speed(redirected from sped)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Legal, Financial, Acronyms, Idioms, Wikipedia.
speed,change in distance with respect to time. Speed is a scalar rather than a vectorvector,
quantity having both magnitude and direction; it may be represented by a directed line segment. Many physical quantities are vectors, e.g., force, velocity, and momentum.
..... Click the link for more information. quantity; i.e., the speed of a body tells one how fast the body is moving but not the direction of the motion. If during time t a body travels over a distance s, then the average speed of that body is equal to s/t. The speed and direction of a body's motion together determine the body's velocityvelocity,
change in displacement with respect to time. Displacement is the vector counterpart of distance, having both magnitude and direction. Velocity is therefore also a vector quantity. The magnitude of velocity is known as the speed of a body.
..... Click the link for more information. .
The time rate of change of position of a body without regard to direction. It is the numerical magnitude only of a velocity and hence is a scalar quantity. Linear speed is commonly measured in such units as meters per second, miles per hour, or feet per second.
Average linear speed is the ratio of the length of the path traversed by a body to the elapsed time during which the body moved through that path. Instantaneous speed is the limiting value of the foregoing ratio as the elapsed time approaches zero. See Velocity