If you've talked about speed in your physics class, you'll know
that:
speed = total distance /
total time
But just how fast can things be? What is the fastest thing in
the universe?
One Word Science is
trying to find out. Have a look at what they found:
- Stealth - the rollercoaster at Thorpe Park - goes from 0 to 80
miles per hour in just 2.3 seconds. Wow! I've been on that...it's
fast!
- The Mercedes-Benz SLS-AMG car can reach speeds of 200 miles per
hour. That's 115 metres per second - the speed of a very fast
hurricane.
- Concorde can reach 600 metres per second - twice the speed of
sound!
But what's the fastest thing in the universe? You'll have to
watch the One Word Science video to find out:
What's the fastest thing where you live? Although you might not
be able to measure the speed of light, you can measure lots of
other things, from snails to buses! Just remember
that:
speed = total distance /
total time
To investigate the speed of objects where you live, choose a
fixed distance and measure it. If you're measuring the speed of
cars, bikes or buses, you could use the distance between two
lampposts - remember to use caution when near a road. Then, using a
stopwatch, measure the time it takes for a car to travel between
the two lampposts.
You can work out the speed of the car using this equation:
speed of car = distance
between two lamposts / time taken for a car to travel the distance
between two lamposts
This is how many speed cameras work - they take a picture of a
car at point 'a'. Several hundred metres along the road a second
photograph is taken at point 'b'. The time that the photographs
were taken is recorded. The speed camera can then calculate the
average speed of the car.
If you've got your dog or cat well-trained, you could even
measure their speed! Measure a fixed distance in your garden or a
park and get your dog to sit at one end. Then, measure the time it
takes for your dog to run the whole distance. Have you got a lazy
Labrador or a speedy spaniel?