Maths - Speed, distance and time: equations and graphs -

Theory and exercises

-Speed, distance and time: equations and graphs-

Relations among speed, distance and time

 An easy way to remember the distance, speed and time equations is to put
the letters into a triangle.

 The triangles will help you remember these 3 rules:

 Distance = Speed x Time

 Time = Distance/Speed
 Speed= Distance/Time

 It is important that, for all of these calculations, the units used correspond
with each other.

 Units for distance = km, hm, dam, m, dm, cm, mm

 Units for time = h, min, seg
 Units for speed = km/h, m/s, m/min, km/min, etc

 Also, each unit can be written with different name:

 km/h = kph
 m/s = mps
 m/h = mph

 Remember also the conversion between miles and km: 1 mile = 1,60 km

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Prof. Ing. Martin N. Gatti

Exercises

1) Complete the gaps to find the value of distance expressed with different units:

a) 134 m = …………………….. km
b) 34 cm = …………………….. m
c) 5.495 km = …………………. m
d) 0,05 dm = …………………... mm
e) 6,78 m = ……………………. hm
f) 2,54 hm = ……………………. km
g) 456,1 cm = ………………….. m
h) 45 miles = ……………………. km
i) 150 miles = …………………… m
j) 350 miles = ……………………. cm

2) Complete the gaps to find the value of velocity expressed with different units:

a) 50 km/h = ………………… m/s

b) 100 km/h = ………………. m/s
c) 2 m/s = …………………….. km/h
d) 1 m/s = …………………….. km/h
e) 3 m/min = ………………….. m/s
f) 160 km/min = …………………. m/s
g) 0,009 km/s = …………………. km/h
h) 45 km/min = …………………. m/h
i) 2 cm/min = …………………… mm/s
j) 32 cm/h = …………………. km/s

3) Complete the gaps to find the value of time expressed with different units:

a) 1 day = ……………… min

b) 30 h = ……………….. s
c) 356.000 h = ………………….. days
d) 45 h 4 min = …………………. s
e) 45.678 s = ……………………. h
f) 134.567 s = ……………………. days
g) 600 s = ……………………. min
h) 3.600 s = ……………………. min
i) 2 days, 2 h, 3 min = …………………………. s
j) 1 day 3 s = ………………………… h
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Maths - Speed, distance and time: equations and graphs -

Calculating distance

 To calculate a distance, the problem must give you the value of speed and
time

 Then, you have to use the equation:

Example:

 Iain walked from his parents' farm into town at a steady speed of
5 km/h. The journey took 3 hours. How far did Iain walk?

In the first hour, he walked 5km

After two hours, he had walked 10km
After three hours, he had walked 15km.

Distance = Speed x Time

Distance = 5 km/h x 3 h
Distance = 15 km

Exercises

1) A killer shark, attacking a fishing boat, swims at a speed of 13 m/s for half a
minute. How far does it swim in this time?

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Prof. Ing. Martin N. Gatti

2) A car leaves London at 8.30 am and arrives in Edinburgh at 5.30 pm. If the car
travels at an average speed of 75 km/h, how far is it from London to Edinburgh?

3) Shona cycles at an average speed of 8 km/h. How far has she travelled if she
cycles for 4 hours?

4) A car travels at a constant speed of 40 mph for 3 hours. How far does the car go?

5) A horse runs for 2 hours 15 mins at a speed of 8 mph. How far does it run?

6) An airplane takes 2 h 30 min to arrive at Rio de Janeiro from Buenos Aires. If the
airplane travels at 800 km/h, how far is it Rio from Buenos Aires?

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Maths - Speed, distance and time: equations and graphs -

Calculating speed

 To calculate a speed, the problem must give you the value of distance and
time.

 Then, you have to use the equation:

Example:

 Find the speed of a train that travels 243 km in 2 h 15 min.

First of all, the problem give us the distance, 243 km, and the time, 2 h
15 min, but the time is not in a global unit, so we have to transform
the minutes into hours:

1 h = 60 min, so 15 min = 15 x 1/60 = 0,25 h

So the train travels for 2 h + 0,25 h = 2,25 h

Then we remember the triangle:

Speed = Distance/Time
Speed = 243 km/ 2,25 h
Speed = 108 km/h

Exercises

1) After a meal, an earthworm moves at a distance of 45 cm in 90 seconds. Find the

speed of the earthworm.

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Prof. Ing. Martin N. Gatti

2) A car leaves Dover at 8.00 am and arrives in London at 10.30 am. If the distance is
120 km, find the average speed.

3) A car travelling at a steady speed takes 4 hours to travel 244 km. Find the average
speed of the car.

4) Alan travels 100 km in 5 h. Find his average speed in km/h.

5) Mary drives her car for 1 hour with a constant speed of 65 km/h and then for
another 2 hours with a constant speed of 80 km/h. What was her average speed?

6) An aeroplane covers a certain distance at a speed of 240 km/h in 5 hours. Which

is the value of speed it must travel to cover the same distance in 2 hours?

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Maths - Speed, distance and time: equations and graphs -

Calculating time

 To calculate a time, the problem must give you the value of distance and
speed.

 Then, you have to use the equation:

Example:

 Joanna drives for 400 km at an average speed of 80km/h. How long

was her journey?

We have the distance, 400 km, and the speed, 80 km/h, so we

remember the triangle:

Time = Distance/Speed
Time = 400 km/80 km/h
Time = 5 h

Exercises

1) An octopus swims 7 km at a speed of 3 km/h. How long does it take in hours and
minutes.

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Prof. Ing. Martin N. Gatti

2) A car travels at 88 km/h over a distance of 22 miles. Find in minutes the time taken
for the car to travel this.

3) Joanna drives for 400 km at an average speed of 80 km/h. How long was her
journey?

4) Scott cycles at 4 mph and covers a distance of 13 miles. How long does his journey
take?

5) John travels in an airplane a distance of 800 km. For half of the distance, the
airplane flies at a speed of 900 km/h, and for the rest of the distance, it flies at a speed
of 760 km/h. How long does the trip take?

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Maths - Speed, distance and time: equations and graphs -

Distance-time graphs

 You should be able to draw and explain distance-time graphs for objects
moving at steady speeds or standing still.

 The vertical axis of a distance-time graph is the distance travelled from the
start, and the horizontal axis is the time taken from the start

 When an object is stationary, the line on the graph is horizontal. When an

object is moving at a steady speed, the line on the graph is straight, but sloped

 Note that the steeper the line, the greater the speed of the object. The blue
line is steeper than the red line because it represents an object moving faster
than the object represented by the red line

 The red lines on the graph represent a typical journey where an object returns
to the start again. Notice that the line representing the return journey slopes
downwards.

 Changes in distances in one direction are positive, and negative in the other
direction. If you walk 10m away from me, that can be written as +10m; if you
walk 3m towards me, that can be written as –3 m.

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Prof. Ing. Martin N. Gatti

Exercises

On Saturday, Peter rode his bicycle to visit Caroline. Caroline´s house is directly east
of Peter´s. The graph shows how far Peter was from her house after each minute of
his trip.
Considering the graph, answer the questions 1-6.

1) What was the speed of Peter during the first 4 minutes of his trip?

2) What was the average speed of Peter during all the trip? And his velocity?

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3) Peter stopped to talk with another friend during his trip. How far was he from
Caroline´s house when he stopped?

4) How much time did Peter spend talking with his friend?

5) What was the speed of Peter after he stopped to talk with his friend?

Velocity-time graphs

 You should be able to explain velocity-time graphs for objects moving with
a constant velocity or a changing velocity

 The velocity of an object is its speed in a particular direction. This means that
two cars travelling at the same speed, but in opposite directions, have
different velocities. One velocity will be positive, and the velocity in the other
direction will be negative

 The vertical axis of a velocity-time graph is the velocity of the object and the
horizontal axis is the time taken from the start

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Prof. Ing. Martin N. Gatti

 When an object is moving with a constant velocity, the line on the graph is
horizontal. When an object is moving with a steadily increasing velocity, or a
steadily decreasing velocity, the line on the graph is straight, but sloped. The
diagram shows some typical lines on a velocity-time graph

 The steeper the line, the more rapidly the velocity of the object is changing.
The blue line is steeper than the red line because it represents an object that
is increasing in velocity much more quickly than the one represented by the
red line.

 Notice that the part of the red line between 7 and 10 seconds is a line sloping
downwards (with a negative gradient). This represents an object that is
steadily slowing down.

Exercises

The following graph shows the change in velocity for a person walking in the street.
The person start the journey in O and finish it in F.
Considering the graph, answer the questions 1-6.

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1) How many times does the person walk at a constant velocity?

2) How much time does the person spend walking?

3) What distance does the person walk from the start to the 2 seconds of his journey?

4) How many times does the person accelerate during the journey?

5) How much time does it take to walk from point O to A?

6) In what section: O-A or D-E does the person increase more rapidly the velocity?

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