speed
1. Physics
a. a scalar measure of the rate of movement of a body expressed either as the distance travelled divided by the time taken (average speed) or the rate of change of position with respect to time at a particular point (instantaneous speed). It is measured in metres per second, miles per hour, etc.
b. (not in technical usage) another word for velocity
2. a rate of rotation, usually expressed in revolutions per unit time
3. a gear ratio in a motor vehicle, bicycle, etc.
4. Photog a numerical expression of the sensitivity to light of a particular type of film, paper, or plate
5. Photog a measure of the ability of a lens to pass light from an object to the image position, determined by the aperture and also the transmitting power of the lens. It increases as the f-number is decreased and vice versa
6. a slang word for amphetamine
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
Speed
The time rate of change of position of a body without regard to direction. It is the numerical magnitude only of a velocity and hence is a scalar quantity. Linear speed is commonly measured in such units as meters per second, miles per hour, or feet per second.
Average linear speed is the ratio of the length of the path traversed by a body to the elapsed time during which the body moved through that path. Instantaneous speed is the limiting value of the foregoing ratio as the elapsed time approaches zero. See Velocity
McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Physics. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
speed
[spēd] (graphic arts)
The sensitivity of a photographic film, expressed according to one of several scales.
(mechanics)
The time rate of change of position of a body without regard to direction; in other words, the magnitude of the velocity vector.
(optics)
The light-gathering power of a lens, expressed as the reciprocal of the f number.
The time that a camera shutter is open.
(physics)
In general, the rapidity with which a process takes place.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Speed
an “illiterate loiterer”; slow-moving servant. [Br. Lit.: Two Gentlemen of Verona]
See: Laziness
Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
SPEED
Early system on LGP-30. Listed in CACM 2(5):16 (May 1959).
This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)
bandwidth
(1) Computer people may use the term for capability and time. For example, "not enough bandwidth to get the job done" means not enough staff or time to do it. Its true meaning follows.(2) The transmission capacity of an electronic pathway such as a communications line, computer bus or computer channel. Digital bandwidth is the number of pulses per second measured in bits per second (bps). For example, Ethernet transmits at different speeds, including 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps and 1000 Mbps (see Mbps and baseband).
When transmitting alternating frequencies, as with all wired analog, many wired digital and most wireless communications, the bandwidth is the difference between the highest and lowest frequencies, measured in cycles per second, or Hertz (Hz). For example, 802.11n Wi-Fi transmits in 20 MHz and 40 MHz channels within the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. The 20 and 40 MHz channel frequencies are the bandwidths, and each channel is divided into subchannels.
From Hertz to Bits - A Complicated Process
When using alternating frequencies for digital transmission, the frequencies are modified (modulated) by the digital input. Using the 802.11n Wi-Fi example, the resulting bit rate can range from 6.5 Mbps to 600 Mbps. This extremely wide range is determined by the signal strength and interference in the environment at any given moment. Any one of more than 30 combinations of channel bandwidth (20, 40 MHz), modulation scheme, error correction rate, channel spacing and number of antennas may be selected, on a packet-by-packet basis. See modulation, video bandwidth, space/time and bandwidth junkie.
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| Bandwidth in Hertz to Bandwidth in Bits |
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| This quadrature PSK (QPSK) example is one of the simplest modulation schemes. Each set of two input bits modifies the carrier into four phase angles. The amplitude remains constant, unlike QAM modulation, in which the amplitude is varied (see QAM). |
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data rate
(1) The speed at which data is transferred within the computer or between a peripheral device and the computer, measured in bytes per second. See transfer rate and space/time.(2) The speed at which audio and video files are encoded (compressed), measured in bits per second (see bit rate).
(3) The transmission speed of a network. For example, 100Base-T Ethernet is rated at 100 Mbps (megabits per second). Also called "bit rate." See space/time.
space/time
The following units of measure are used to define digital capacities and speeds. For measurements of a meter, see metric system. See binary values, NIST binary and long scale.************************************** S P A C E ************************************** 10 to theBits or Bytes Power of: Kilo (K) Thousand 3 Mega (M) Million 6 Giga (G) Billion 9 Tera (T) Trillion 12 Bytes Peta (P) Quadrillion 15 Exa (E) Quintillion 18 Zetta (Z) Sextillion 21 Yotta (Y) Septillion 24 Bronto Octillion 27 Geop Nonillion 30 Storage Capacity Measured in: CPU word size bits Disk/SSD/USB drive bytes Memory (RAM) bytes **************************************** T I M E ***************************************Fractions of a second 10 to theSecond Power of: Millisecond (ms) Thousandth -3 Microsecond (µs) Millionth -6 Nanosecond (ns) Billionth -9 Picosecond (ps) Trillionth -12 Femtosecond (fs) Quadrillionth -15 Attosecond (as) Quintillionth -18 Zeptosecond (zs) Sextillionth -21 Yoctosecond (ys) Septillionth -24 Transmit/Transfer Measured in: Parallel bus/channel bytes/sec Disk/solid state drive bytes/sec Memory (RAM) bytes/sec PCI Express bus bytes/sec Cellular data plan bytes USB bits/sec Network/communications bits/sec Disk access time ms SSD access time µs RAM access time ns Machine cycle µs, ns Instruction execution µs, ns Transistor switching ns, ps, fs CPU Speed - Clock Cycles Per Second (1 cycle/sec = 1 Hertz) See Hertz. kilohertz (kHz) thousand megahertz (MHz) million gigahertz (GHz) billion
speed of light
All electromagnetic radiation, including light, radio transmission and electricity, travels at approximately 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) per second; more than seven times around the equator in one second. More precisely, the speed is 299,792,458 meters per second in a vacuum.Never Fast Enough!
This inherent speed of Mother Nature is why computers work so fast. Within the tiny chip, electricity has to flow only a couple of millimeters, and, within an entire computer, only a few feet. Yet, as fast as that is, it is never fast enough. There is resistance in the lines, which slows down the current, and even though transistors switch in billionths of a second, scientific and multimedia applications are always exhausting the fastest computers. See software bloat.
speed of sound
Sound waves travel at approximately 750 mph at sea level, but slow down at higher altitudes. The speed of sound is called "Mach 1." Supersonic refers to speeds from Mach 1 to Mach 5 (1 to 5 times the speed of sound), and hypersonic ranges from Mach 5 to Mach 10 (5x to 10x).Copyright © 1981-2025 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.