As I was coming back from my doctors appointment today I sat next to Terri, the cab driver and die hard nascar fan. He described the way he felt in the stands when the engine would start, and the adrenaline he felt when the cars got in a crash. But what Terri didn't know or quite frankly care about is how his favorite "sport" related to physics. How does a racecar driver win a race? A racecar driver wins a race by driving a set distance in the shortest time. Distance and time effect how fast a race car goes as does the velocity. Speed and velocity are not the same thing. Both pertain to distance and time but velocity is only constant if a race car is going in the same direction at a constant speed. So in the track during a curve only speed is involved, but during one of the stretches without a cure velocity is used.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZa_S93bQWY
I really like how you used a scenario to describe what velocity and speed are. It makes it easier to understand what exactly the definitions mean in real life situations. I suggest that next time you try to incorporate an example using numbers, so that it's easier to understand how the definitions work in relation to trying to figure out a problem.
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