Question

An object travels North at `4 m/s` for `9 s` and then travels South at `5 m/s` for `2 s`. What are the object's average speed and velocity?

Answer 1

Total distance covered by the object along north is `4*9 m` or `36 m` and along south is `5*2 m` or `10 m`,hence total distance covered is `36+10` or `46 m`

So,average speed = total distance covered/total time
I.e `46/11 m/s` or `4.18 m/s`

And, average velocity= total displacement/total time I.e `(10-36)/11` or `- 2.36 m/s`

negative sign indicates direction i.e along north