Measuring Speed (Edexcel GCSE Physics: Combined Science)

• The table below gives some typical speeds (in m/s) for various everyday scenarios

Typical Speeds Table

• Note that typical speeds of a person walking, running or cycling depends on a variety of factors, such as:
  • Age
  • Terrain
  • Fitness
  • Distance

• Similarly, typical speeds of transportation systems like cars or planes will depend on their:
  • Shape
  • Design
  • Cost
  • Purpose

Part (a)

• • The student’s claim is incorrect because 6 m/s is too fast
  • The typical speed that people walk at is about 1.5 m/s

Part (b)

• • Some factors that can affect the typical speeds of a person walking are:
    • The terrain might be wet, rocky or steep
    • The age of the person
    • The fitness of the person
    • The length of the walk or journey

• Speed is the distance travelled by an object every second
• The simplest way to measure the speed of an object, is to time how long it takes to travel a known distance and use the equation:

Choosing Equipment

• To ensure a result for speed is as accurate as possible, choose the appropriate equipment to measure the distance and time

Some simple equipment that can be used to measure distance travelled and time taken for objects like a tennis ball and plastic cone

• To compare the average falling speed of a tennis ball to a plastic cone, for example:
  • A metre rule could be used to measure the distance they fall from
  • A timer could be used to measure how long they take to reach the ground

• It would not be practical to use a metre rule to measure the length of an athletics track though
• In this instance, a more appropriate piece of equipment would be a (long!) tape measure, or even better, a trundle wheel

A trundle wheel is ideal for measuring long distances

Using Lights Gates to Measure Time

• Light gates are pieces of digital equipment that allow times to be measured more accurately

Light gates can be used to accurately time the motion of objects in a laboratory

• A light gate can be used to start a timer when an object passes through it
• A flag on top of the moving object blocks a beam of light as it passes through the light gate, triggering the timer to start
• A second light gate (at some fixed distance away) can be used to stop the timer as the object passes through it

Single Light Gates to Measure Speed

• A single light gate can also be used to measure the speed of an object as it passes through

Example of using a single light gate to measure speed

• The timer measures how long the light gate is blocked for
• The distance travelled is given by the length of the flag passing through the light gate
• The two measurements for distance travelled and time taken can then be used in the equation for speed