Could you pass 8th grade science test?

[Charismo']

Originally Posted by Ab

Bingo. Velocity is a vector.

Since we are nitpicking - the commonly held view that velocity is a vector exists *only* in science and is a word that existed before it was appropriated by science. The original meaning is the same as 'speed' and has no direction.

This can still be seen in dictionaries, where there is a special note for usage in physics:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/velocity

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/velocity

As you can see, velocity is in fact a synonym for speed. This is also evidenced by the fact that the stem of the word is often used in other words and indicates speed, for example, 'velociraptor' - most likely not a fast dinosaur that always runs in the same direction .

All that said, I concede it was a science test, after all. But thought perhaps you might find this interesting.

[BadNova]

In the context of a test on physics, velocity is ALWAYS a vector.

[Charismo']

Originally Posted by BadNova

In the context of a test on physics, velocity is ALWAYS a vector.

In this test, saying that it had 'a' speed of 100 ms-1 would be entirely correct. It ALSO had a velocity of 100 ms-1 that happens to be the same as the speed.

Physics stole the word from the general language. As you might have noticed the original root comes from Latin and means simply 'fast'. That was my point. I also conceded later on that it was a science context and that this was fyi .