When we talk about speed calculation in physics problems, it often involves determining how quickly an object moves from one point to another. Speed is a scalar quantity, meaning it does not have a direction—it simply measures how fast something is moving. To calculate speed, you generally use the formula:
- The basic formula for speed is:\[\text{Speed} = \frac{\text{Distance}}{\text{Time}}\]
However, in scenarios involving kinetic energy, such as in our volleyball example, we need to use a different approach.Here, the speed is derived from kinetic energy, where the formula:\[v^2 = \frac{2 \, KE}{m}\]allows us to calculate the square of the speed. To find speed \( v \), take the square root of both sides of this equation.