On this day in physics: 10 January 1936 Birth of Robert Woodrow Wilson, one of the discoverers of the cosmic microwave background radiation along with Arno Penzias (Source).
Speed is...wait what? Didn't we just do this on Tuesday? The answer is no. On Tuesday we covered velocity, which is drastically different from speed. Let's explore.
Speed describes the rate at which an object is changing position, or moving through space, or any other medium, just like velocity. However, speed solely indicates the rate of change of motion. Nowhere in the speed can you find the direction of this motion. Consider the speedometer in your car. It tells you that you're going 65 mph regardless of which direction you are travelling. If it were to be coupled with a compass, and tell you, for example 65 mph, Northwest, you would then have a velocity.
Speed is what is known as a scalar, since it doesn't contain any of the direction information. Velocity is what is known as a vector quantity, since it contains the direction component as well.
Killer Resource: Star Talk Podcast hosted by Neil Degrasse Tyson
Keywords: Position, Kinematics, Acceleration, Physics, Podcast, Derivative, Jerk
