Question

Scientists tracking a flock of ducks found that, on average, the ducks flew 740 km south in 12 hours. What were the speed and velocity of the flock of ducks in meters per second? Show your work.

Answer 1

1) 17.1 m/s

2) 17.1 m/s south

Explanation:

1)

The speed of an object is a scalar quantity indicating "how fast" is the object moving, regardless of its direction of motion.

Being a scalar quantity, it has only a magnitude, while it doesn't have a direction.

The speed of an object is given by the formula:

$v=\frac{d}{t}$

where:

d is the distance covered by the object, which is the total length of the path covered by the object

t is the time taken to cover the distance d

In this problem we have:

$d=740 km =740,000 m$ is the distance covered by the ducks

$t=12 h \cdot 60 \cdot 60 =43,200 s$ is the time taken

Substituting, we find:

$v=\frac{740,000}{43,200}=17.1 m/s$

2)

The velocity of an object is a vector quantity indicating how fast the object is moving in a certain direction.

Being a vector, velocity has both a magnitude and a direction.

The magnitude of the velocity is given by:

$v=\frac{d}{t}$

where

d is the displacement, which is the shortest distance in a straight line between the initial position and the final position of motion

t is the time taken for the displacement d to occur

And the direction is equal to the direction of the displacement.

In this problem:

$d=740 km = 740,000 m$ south is the displacement

$t=12 h \cdot 60 \cdot 60 =43,200 s$ is the time taken

Substituting, we find:

$v=\frac{740,000}{43,200}=17.1 m/s$ south