In order to know the car's velocity, you must know the car's speed and you must also know what direction the car is traveling. So if you know your car is traveling north from Salt Lake City to Logan and your speedometer reads 75 miles per hour, then you also know your car's velocity. On the weather channel a hurricane's path is explained in terms of velocity. People want to know how fast a hurricane is traveling but they also need to know in what direction it is traveling so they can evacuate if necessary. For instance, the weatherman will report a hurricane's velocity as five kilometers per hour moving in a northeasterly direction.
Acceleration is the rate of change in velocity.
A roller coaster is constantly changing its velocity as it travels up and down and around. To calculate the acceleration of a roller coaster, divide the change in velocity by the time it takes the velocity to change. The roller coaster ride takes 60 seconds to complete. Find the acceleration. Print this page in Adobe Acrobat format.