Speed vs. Velocity. Velocity is a vector quantity. For example, 50 km/hr (31 mph) describes the speed at which a car is traveling along a road, while 50 km/hr west describes the velocity at which it is traveling. Speed and velocity are very close in meaning and are often incorrectly used interchangeably.

Speed is calculated by the displacement of space per a unit of time. Speed is a scalar quantity that is based on distance and time.

For a layman, this doesn’t pose too much of a problem as the two words have very similar applications. Speed is displacement (distance traveled) per unit time. Velocity is the speed an object is moving at in a given direction.|The difference between speed and velocity is that velocity is speed with a direction vector associated with it. Speed is the distance traveled by a body within the specific time, on the other hand, velocity is the rate of change of displacement of the body within the specific time and in a specific direction.

At the basis of speed lies distance. Speed is how fast an object is moving, while velocity is the rate at which an object changes position in a certain direction. However, when one enters the world of physics, the differences between velocity and speed become very important indeed. Speed is a scalar quantity – basically, just a number. It's that direction vector that makes them different.

Let's back up a bit and review. The formula used to calculate the average speed and average velocity is virtually the same, v = D/t, s = d/t, with only slight difference that in the first case, direction is to be mentioned. If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked.

Speed has only two components: distance and speed.

Velocity has three components: displacement, time and direction. Speed is how fast an object travels a given distance.

Velocity and speed are often erroneously used interchangeably. The SI unit of velocity is the same as for the speed, ms-1. Speed vs. Velocity.

Put another way, speed is a scalar value, while velocity is a vector. Speed and velocity questions If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. Both deal with the motion of an object over a distance over time, but velocity also considers direction, whereas speed does not. At the basis of velocity lies displacement. Therefore the speed and velocity can be …

The formula we could use is \[\textrm{average speed} = \dfrac{\textrm{change in distance}}{\textrm{change in time}}.\] Given that the axes are distance and time, this is also a formula for the gradient.