New
New
Year 11
Higher
Combining speeds
I can combine compound measures, calculating overall speed.
New
New
Year 11
Higher
Combining speeds
I can combine compound measures, calculating overall speed.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- Two speeds can be combined to give an overall average speed.
- Average speed is the total distance travelled divided by the total time taken.
Keywords
Speed - Speed is the rate at which something is moving. It is measured as the distance travelled per unit of time.
Common misconception
The average speed is found by adding the speeds and dividing by how many average speeds are given.
The common misconception is calculating an average of an average. Show how the answers when calculating the average of the average speeds is not the same as calculating the average speed using the total distance and total time of the average speeds.
Discuss with pupils what have they experienced today which has involved combining speeds? A good example is walking to school too slowly (perhaps distracted by a mobile phone), realizing if the pace is maintained you will be late and so there will be a need increase the speed to be in on time.
Teacher tip
Licence
This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on
Open Government Licence version 3.0
except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).Lesson video
Loading...
Starter quiz
Download starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.
A car travels 150 kilometres in 3 hours. What is the average speed of the car?
5000 km/h
0.5 km/h
500 km/h
5 km/h
Q2.
A cyclist travels at an average speed of 12 km/h for 4 hours. How far does the cyclist travel in km?
Q3.
A person walks at a speed of 4 km/h and covers a distance of 10 kilometres. How long does the walk take in hours?
2 hours
2.30 hours
25 hours
Q4.
If a runner maintains a speed of 10 km/h for 90 minutes, how far do they run in km?
Q5.
Match the single multiplier that connects these numbers.
5
8
$$\frac{2}{3}$$
$$\frac{3}{4}$$
$$\frac{5}{7}$$
Q6.
A car travels for 3 hours at a speed of 55 km/h, then for 2 hours at a speed of 70 km/h. What is the total distance traveled in km?
Exit quiz
Download exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.
is the rate at which something is moving. It is measured as the distance travelled per unit of time.
Acceleration
Pressure
Density
Force
Q2.
A person walks at 5 km/h for 2 hours, then runs at 10 km/h for 1 hour. What is their average speed for the entire journey? Give the answer correct to 2 s.f.
8 km/h
7.5 km/h
9 km/h
Q3.
A train travels at 80 km/h for 2 hours and then at 100 km/h for 3 hours. What is the average speed of the train for the entire trip?
90 km/h
95 km/h
99 km/h
Q4.
Who has run the furthest? Put the runner who has run the greatest distance at the top and the runner who has run the least distance at the bottom.
Q5.
Two cyclists start from the same point and travel in the same direction. Cyclist A travels at 15 km/h and Cyclist B travels at 20 km/h. After 2 hours, how far apart are they? Give the answer in km.
Q6.
Two cyclists start from the same point. Cyclist A travels at 15 km/h & Cyclist B starts 1 hour later at 20 km/h. After how many hours will Cyclist B catch up with Cyclist A? Give the number in hours.