SPEED, DISTANCE AND

TIME
Changing units of time

1 Write 24 minutes as a fraction of an hour.

24
24 minutes = hour to change minutes into hours divide by 60
60
2
 hour
5

2 Write 54 minutes as a decimal of an hour.

54
54 minutes = hour to change minutes into hours divide by 60
60
9
 hour to change a fraction to a decimal divide the
10 numerator by the denominator
 0.9 hours
 7
3 Change of an hour into minutes.
12

7 7
hour =  60 minutes to change hours into minutes multiply by 60
12 12
 35 minutes

4 Change 0.3 hours into minutes.

0.3 hour = 0.3  60 minutes to change hours into minutes multiply by 60

 18 minutes
Speed

Speed is a measure of how fast an object is travelling.

When the speed is constant, the formula connecting speed, distance and time is:

distance
speed =
time

If the distance is measured in metres and the time is measured in seconds

then the speed is measured in metres per second (m/s or ms−1).

If the distance is measured in kilometres and the time is measured in hours

then the speed is measured in kilometres per hour (km/h or kmh−1).
1 A car takes 3 hours 20 minutes to travel
300 km at constant speed.
Find the speed of the car in km/h.

distance
speed = You must first change 20 minutes into hours.
time
300 20 1
 20 minutes = hour = hour
1 60 3
3
3
 90 km/h
2 A car is travelling at 54 km/h.
Change the speed of the car into m/s.

54 kilometres/hour = 54 000 metres/hour

54 000
 metres/minute
60
 900 metres/minute
900
 metres/second
60
 15 m/s
The formula distance can be rearranged to give
speed =
time

distance
distance = speed × time or time =
speed

The following triangle is a useful memory aid for remembering the three
formulae.
To find the formula for finding T put your
finger over the letter T.
D This gives you T = .
D
S
To find the formula for finding D put your
S×T finger over the letter D.
This gives you D = S  T.
A bird flies for 48 km at a speed of 6 m/s.
Calculate the time taken in hours and minutes.

change 48 km into m 48 km = 48 000 m

distance
time =
speed
48 000

6
 8000 seconds divide by 60 to change into minutes
1
 133 minutes 120 minutes = 2 hours
3
1
 2 hours 13 minutes
3
Average speed

You can calculate the average speed for a journey using:

total distance travelled

average speed =
total time taken
A car travels at 75 km/h for 3 hours and then at 60 km/h
for 30 minutes.
a Calculate the total distance travelled.
b Calculate the average speed for the whole journey.

a distance = speed × time

distance = 75  3 distance = 60  0.5
 225 km  30 km
Total distance = 225 + 30 = 255 km

total distance travelled

b average speed =
total time taken
255

3  0.5
 72.9 km/h (to 3 s.f.)