Hi guys, I'm having trouble understanding what average speed is all about. The equation that I know of calculating average speed is:
a(subscript av)=delta d/delta t.
Now is average speed the total distance travelled over total time as my book says it is? I'm kinda confused at that because how can the total distance travelled divided by the total time travelled give you the average speed. Isn't that the instantaneous speed? Suppose i'm observing a distance-time graph and the line is not straight but rather curved. If i follow the terminology from the book, all i would "need" to do to find the average speed is look at the total distance travelled and divide it by the total time travelled which should be the point at the end of the graph. How can that be the "average speed" of an object? Isn't it the instantaneous speed of an object at that particular moment?
If I didn't make any sense of my question then please tell me so I can clarify it.
Thanks.