General Question

UScitizen's avatar

When I close the throttle on my car, and allow speed to bleed off, is this a Delta-V scalar?

Asked by UScitizen (4306points) July 4th, 2010

I’m trying to explain Delta-V to a student. I don’t want to mislead him. Thanks.

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1 Answer

jerv's avatar

So long as you travel in a straight line.

As you probably know, turning is a change in velocity ( ΔV ) even if speed remains constant. However, if direction does not change then any ΔV you get is scalar since speed is a scalar quantity and velocity is determined by speed and direction; a scalar and a vector, and we’ve alread declared the vector component to be constant.

jerv (31076points)“Great Answer” (5points) Flag as…

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