Asked in Traffic Violations and Tickets
What is the math formula for distancetimespeed?
Answer
Wiki User
05/05/2008
I'm going to show you two versions of the formula that relates distance, velocity (speed), and time. The first is the simple one encountered in school algebra, while the second gives a much deeper insight the meaning of the rate of speed. Simple Formula d = r*t (distance equals rate multiplied by time) Deeper Formula d = (d/t) * t (this formula shows that the rate is distance divided by time, e.g. miles divided by hours, or mph, kilometers divided by seconds, or any distance measurement divided by any time measurement) We can rearrange the first formula, using rules of algebra, to get formulas for the rate and the time as well as the distance. r = d/t (rate = distance divided by time, as shown in the Deeper Formula) t = d/r (time = distance divided by rate) Using the Formulae What is the distance travelled by a car speeding at 100 miles/hour for 2.5 hours? (use the distance Deeper Formula) d = (100 miles/1 hour) * 2.5 hours = 250 miles Here is a link to an excellent discussion of the formulae, including instruction on how to keep different units (like seconds and hours) straight during the computations: http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.distance.html