Lynn Pettis (4/23/2015)
CELKO (4/22/2015)
you really can divide miles by hours and get speed! 🙂
Also, since you are so picky about using the correct terms, distance divided by time equals velocity!
Maybe you should brush up on your math/science terms.
He got it right for once, Lynn. He divided miles (a scalar distance) by hours (a scalar time) and got a scalar called speed. It's rather difficult to get a vector (velocity) by dividing one scalar by another.
I'm well aware that the term "velocity" in non-scientific use often means speed, but I don't see how that would make it wrong to call a speed a speed instead of calling it a velocity and you did in fact specify that you were using velocity in the scientific sense. According to OED velocity in scientific usage is " speed together with the direction of travel, as a vector quantity" (and that's what it is used to mean in every physics, maths, or engineering document I've ever seen it used in). Collins agrees with the OED that it's a vector quantity in scientific usage and Chambers reckons it's a vector in anything other than loose usage.
Tom