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Year 11
Higher

Combining speeds

I can combine compound measures, calculating overall speed.

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New
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Year 11
Higher

Combining speeds

I can combine compound measures, calculating overall speed.

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Share activities with pupils
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These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Two speeds can be combined to give an overall average speed.
  2. 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.


To help you plan your year 11 maths lesson on: Combining speeds, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

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.
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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

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Starter quiz

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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
Correct answer: 50 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?
Correct Answer: 48 km, 48km, 48 kilometres
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
Correct answer: 2.5 hours
25 hours
Q4.
If a runner maintains a speed of 10 km/h for 90 minutes, how far do they run in km?
Correct Answer: 15 km, 15km, 15 kilometres
Q5.
Match the single multiplier that connects these numbers.
Correct Answer:4 to 20,5
tick

5

Correct Answer:9 to 72,8
tick

8

Correct Answer:6 to 4,$$\frac{2}{3}$$
tick

$$\frac{2}{3}$$

Correct Answer:12 to 9,$$\frac{3}{4}$$
tick

$$\frac{3}{4}$$

Correct Answer:14 to 10,$$\frac{5}{7}$$
tick

$$\frac{5}{7}$$

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?
Correct Answer: 305 km, 305km, 305 kilometres

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
is the rate at which something is moving. It is measured as the distance travelled per unit of time.
Acceleration
Correct answer: Speed
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
Correct answer: 6.7 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?
Correct answer: 92 km/h
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.
1 - Andeep ran 4km/h for 45 mins and then 9km/h for 12 mins.
2 - Laura ran 5km/h for 6 mins and then 8km/h for 30 mins.
3 - Sam ran 8km/h for 20 mins and then 4km/h for 15 mins.
4 - Aisha ran 4km/h for 30 mins and then 4km/h for 5 mins.
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.
Correct Answer: 10 km, 10km, 10 kilometres
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.
Correct Answer: 3, 3 hours, 3 hrs, 3 hrs