Answer Key
1. The cheetah, the fastest of land animals can run a distance of 274 m in 8.65 s at top speed. What is the
cheetah’s top speed?
31.7 m/s
2. Polar bears are extremely good swimmers and can travel for hours without resting. With an average
swimming speed of 2.6 m/s, how far, in km, will a bear have traveled after 10.0 hours? (Watch units!)
93.6 km
3. The maximum posted speed limit in Canada is found in rural areas of western provinces. With a
maximum limit of 120 km/h, if you drove the maximum speed for 3.5 h, how far would you travel?
420 km/h
4. A baseball is pitched with a speed of 35.0 m/s. How long does it take to travel 18.4 m from the pitchers
mound to home plate?
0.526 s
5. The longest stretch of straight railroad track lies in Australia. The track extends 478 km without curving.
How long would it take a train moving 97 km/hr to travel the length of this track?
4.9 h
6. At exactly 2:00 pm, Speedy the Snail crawls onto a meter stick at the 10.0 cm mark. If he reaches the
65.0 cm mark at exactly 2:10 pm, what is his speed in cm/minute? Convert your answer to km/hr.
Speed in cm/min = 5.5 cm/min
Speed in km/hr = 0.0033 km/hr
7. Sally decided to visit her grandmother for the weekend. She drove 217 km in 135 minutes. What was
her average speed in km/hour?
Time = 2.25 hr, so Speed = 96.4 km/hr
8. Help Jimmy figure out how far he drove. He knew that his average speed was 95 km/hr and that he
drove 6.0 hours. How far did he drive?
570 km
9. If Jamie wants to arrive at her aunt’s house on time for a 5:00pm dinner, when will she need to leave her
apartment if she only drives the speed limit (100.0 km/hr) and her aunt lives 48 km away?
Time to drive = 0.48 hours, or 29 minutes. So, Jamie would have to leave at 4:31 to be exactly on time
10. Sondra drove 310 km in 3.4 hours in the morning, then got hungry and stopped at McDonalds for 30.0
minutes to eat a Big Mac. She finished her trip driving 240 km in 2.75 hours.
a. What was Sondra’s average speed in the morning?
91 km/hr
b. What was Sondra’s average speed after lunch?
87 km/hr
c. What was her average speed for the entire trip? *Remember what is meant by average speed!
Total distance = 550 km; Total time = 6.65 hours; so, Average Speed over the trip = 83 km/hr