Question

Can the average speed of a moving body be zero?

Answer 1

Hint We can take a live example when we go to school, we cover a distance from our home to school in a period of time. The average speed depends on distance cover and time taken to cover the distance. Can this distance be zero?

Complete step by step solution
As we all know, speed depends on the distance traveled in a time interval. So, when a body is moving then it will definitely travel a particular distance, in a certain time. As distance is a scalar quantity. Then speed or average speed will have some magnitude or non-zero value.
On the other hand average velocity depends on displacement in a time interval. Displacement of a body can be zero, which makes average velocity zero. As displacement is a vector quantity.

Additional information
Types of speed: Speed is categorized in four categories, which are as follows:
Uniform speed: an object is known as in uniform speed when the object travels an identical distance in the same period of time.
Variable speed: An object is known in variable speed when the object travels a different distance in the same period of time.
Average Speed: When an object travels at a uniform speed then the ratio of total traveled distance by an object to the total time taken by the object is known as average speed.
Instantaneous speed: When an object is moving with variable speed, then the speed of that object at any second of time is called instantaneous speed.

Note The point to be noted, we should keep in mind that average speed is a scalar quantity and average velocity is a vector quantity. The average velocity of a moving object can be zero in the case of a circular path as displacement will be zero but average speed cannot be zero for a moving object.