Britannica AI Icon

Quick Summary

Velocity is a fundamental concept in physics used to describe an object's motion. It quantifies both the speed at which an object is moving and the direction of that movement. This is a key distinction from speed, which only measures how fast an object is moving without regard to direction.12

Mathematically, average velocity is calculated by dividing the change in an object's position by the change in time it took for that displacement to occur. Velocity is considered a vector quantity because it has both magnitude (speed) and direction, and is often represented graphically by a directed line segment.12

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.