3.

4 Velocity, Speed, and Rates of Change

Photo by Vickie Kelly, 2008

Denver & Rio Grande Railroad

Gunnison River, Colorado

Greg Kelly, Hanford High School, Richland, Washington

Consider a graph of displacement (distance traveled) vs. time.

Average velocity can be
found by taking:
B

distance
(miles)

t
time (hours)

change in position s

change in time
t

Vave

s f t t f t

t
t

The speedometer in your car does not measure average

velocity, but instantaneous velocity.

f t t f t
ds
V t
lim
dt t 0
t

(The velocity at one

moment in time.)

Velocity is the first derivative of position.

Example:

Free Fall Equation

Gravitational
Constants:

1 2
s g t
2

ft
g 32
sec 2

1
s 32 t 2
2

m
g 9.8
sec 2

s 16 t 2
ds
V
32 t
dt

cm
g 980
sec 2

Speed is the absolute value of velocity.

Acceleration is the derivative of velocity.

2
d
s
dv
2
a
dt
dt

If distance is in:

example:

v 32t
a 32

feet

Velocity would be in:

feet
sec

Acceleration would be in:

ft
ft
sec
2
sec
sec

It is important to understand the relationship between a

position graph, velocity and acceleration:

acc neg
vel pos &
decreasing

acc neg
vel neg &
decreasing

acc zero
vel pos &
constant

distance

velocity
zero

acc pos
vel pos &
increasing

acc zero
vel neg &
constant
acc pos
vel neg &
increasing

acc zero,
velocity zero
time

Rates of Change:
Average rate of change =

f x h f x
h

f x h f x
Instantaneous rate of change = f x lim
h 0
h

These definitions are true for any function.

( x does not have to represent time. )

Example 1:

For a circle:

A r2
dA d
r2
dr dr
dA
2 r
dr
Instantaneous rate of change of the area with
respect to the radius.

dA 2 r dr
For tree ring growth, if the change in area is constant then dr
must get smaller as r gets larger.

from Economics:
Marginal cost is the first derivative of the cost function, and
represents an approximation of the cost of producing one
more unit.

Example 13:

Suppose it costs:

c x x 3 6 x 2 15 x

to produce x stoves.

c x 3 x 2 12 x 15

If you are currently producing 10 stoves, the

11th stove will cost approximately:

c 10 3 102 12 10

15
Note that this is not a
great approximation
Dont let that bother you.
The actual cost is: C 11 C 10

300 120 15
$195
marginal cost

113 6 112 15 11
103 6 10
2 15
10
770 550 $220

actual cost

Note that this is not a

great approximation
Dont let that bother you.
Marginal cost is a linear approximation of a curved
function. For large values it gives a good approximation
of the cost of producing the next item.