Question

An object travels North at `2 m/s` for `6 s` and then travels South at `7 m/s` for `4 s`. What are the object's average speed and velocity?

Answer 1

Clearly,distance covered by the object in total `10 s` is `6*2 + 7*4=40 m`

So,average speed = total distance covered/total time taken = `40/10 =4 ms^-1`

Again, net displacement is `(6*2 - 7*4)=-16 m`

So,average velocity = net displacement/total time taken = `-16/10=-1.6 ms^-1`

Negative sign indicates,direction of average velocity is towards south