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Speed is the measurement of how fast your locationis changing. It is the scalar value of velocity, which is speed in a given direction. Velocity can change without a change in speed.

Acceleration is the measurement of how fast your speed is changing. However, since acceleration is more precisely a change in velocity, you could experience acceleration without a change in speed, if your direction of motion changes. The occupants of a car traveling at constant speed around a curve will experience acceleration toward one side of the car.

Speed is simply how fast a person is going at a particular instant in time. As long as you keep going at the same speed and in the same direction, then you have no acceleration. Conversely, acceleration can be defined as the process of changing speed. So, just as having zero speed means that one's position, or distance, does not change, so having zero acceleration means one speed does not change.

The word speed refers to how fast one is moving but does not involve the concept of which direction one is moving. However, acceleration can be achieved by changing the direction of motion as well as by changing the rate of motion. The concept required is the idea of a vector, which is a quantity that has both magnitude and direction. In an extreme case, moving in a circle at a constant speed does nothing to change speed, but does change the direction of motion, and so is a case where there is acceleration.

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9y ago

Acceleration is the RATE OF CHANGE of speed - how fast speed (or more precisely, velocity) changes. Thus, acceleration is not a speed nor a velocity, and it isn't expressed in the same units. Whereas the SI unit for speed and for velocity is meters/second, for acceleration you need to divide a speed by a time, so the units are (meters/second) / second, usually written as meters / second squared.

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Q: What is the difference between speed and acceleration?
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Related questions

What is the difference between constant speed and constant acceleration?

Constant speed means that speed doesn't change. Constant acceleration means that acceleration doesn't change. (If the acceleration is anything but zero, speed WILL change.)


What is the difference between speed and acceleration in phisycs?

Speed - is something moving at a constant rate. Acceleration is an increase of the rate an object is moving.


What is the difference between speed velocity acceleration?

Speed is the rate of change in distance, whereas velocity is speed and direction of travel. Acceleration is the change in velocity (including direction).


What is the difference between acceleration and deceleration?

Acceleration means speeding up or getting faster. Deceleration means losing speed or speed rate decreasing. 'Celer' is the Latin word for fast or speedy. - Answer Deceleration is the loss in speed or slowing down. Acceleration is the increase in speed.


What is the difference between an object with constant acceleration and an object with constant speed?

Constant speed means that the speed doesn't change.Constant acceleration means that the acceleration doesn't change. The velocity WILL change in this case - unless the acceleration happens to be zero. So will the speed - note that in circular motion, both the acceleration and the velocity change all the time, even if the speed doesn't change.


What is the different between motion and acceleration?

Motion is about speed of location change, acceleration is about speed change.


What is difference between an object moving with uniform acceleration and an object moving with a constant velocity?

A motion with a constant speed will always be moving the same speed A motion with a constant acceleration will constantly be gaining speed, and does not remain moving at the same speed.


When you press your bicycle's brakeswhat happens to your speedvelocityand acceleration?

your seed,velocity,and acceleration will be slow When you brake, your acceleration increases (!), your velocity decreases (and in this case, there is no difference between velocity and speed). Negative acceleration increases when braking a moving bike.


How are constant speed and constant acceleration different?

There is a huge difference between constant speed and constant acceleration. Constant speed is when the object is travelling constant, no change in its velocity and acceleration or in other words no extra force to speed up. Constant acceleration when the object is acceleration constant, it means that the speed of the object is change at the same rate each second. The acceleration rate at which the object is travelling is constant. for example, when a car is stationary at a traffic light and it starts acceleration, picking up speed but the rate of acceleration will not constant because the amount of force applied differs each second due to the acceleration rate.


What is the difference between gravitational acceleration and acceleration?

Gravitational acceleration is simply acceleration due to gravity.


What is the difference between Average Speed and Instantaneous Speed?

Suppose you accelerate in your car from stopped to 50 km.hr-1. When you were stopped your instantaneous speed was zero. At the end of the period of acceleration your instantaneous speed was 50 km.hr-1. If your rate of acceleration was constant then your average speed was 25 km.hr-1.


What are the difference between velocity and acceleration?

Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity.