Give an example of when average speed would be used instead of instantaenous speed.
Great question! Average speed is often used in situations where we want to find the overall rate of motion over a given time interval, while instantaneous speed is the speed at a specific moment in time.
Let's consider an example to illustrate this. Imagine you are taking a road trip from City A to City B. Along the way, you encounter different traffic and road conditions, causing your speed to vary.
If you wanted to know how fast you were driving at a particular instant, let's say after 3 hours, you would be interested in the instantaneous speed at that exact moment. This can be determined by looking at your car's speedometer or using a GPS device.
On the other hand, if you wanted to know your average speed over the entire trip, you would need to calculate the overall rate of motion. To do this, you would divide the total distance traveled by the total time taken. For example, if you drove a total distance of 300 miles in 5 hours, your average speed would be 60 miles per hour.
So, in this scenario, we would use average speed to determine the overall rate of motion during the entire journey, while instantaneous speed would be used to know the speed at a specific moment in time, like when checking your current speed on the highway.
I hope this helps clarify the difference between average speed and instantaneous speed!