Physics · Unit 3

Motion and Speed

How things move

Describing motion precisely turns out to require more care than it seems: you need a starting point, a direction and a clock before the word speed means anything.

The unit covers distance and time, position and direction, fast and slow as a measurable rather than a feeling, and speeding up and slowing down.

This unit breaks down into 20 short steps and 120 questions, starting at difficulty 1 and building to 2. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.

Steps: 20
Questions: 120
Difficulty: 1-2

What this unit covers

Distance and Time
Direction and Position
Fast and Slow
Moving and Still
Speeding Up and Slowing Down

Where this fits

Follows Pushes and Pulls. Motion in Depth is the quantitative version.

Where people slip

Distance and displacement are different. Walk a lap of a track and you have covered four hundred metres and gone nowhere, and only one of those numbers is displacement.

How the unit is structured

Motion and Speed runs as 20 short steps that unlock in order. 15 are practice rounds and 5 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 1 and climb to 2 as you progress.

Step 1 · easierStep 20 · harder

Challenge rounds

Example questions

30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 120 in the unit altogether.

Direction and Position

Fact or fibLevel 1
1. North, south, east and west are directions on a compass.
Answer: True
A compass shows the four main directions: north, south, east and west.
Fill the blankLevel 1
2. A ____ is a tool that shows which way is north.
- compasscorrect
- clock
- ruler
- scale
A compass points to north and helps us find directions.
Odd one outLevel 1
3. Three of these are directions. Which one is not?
- Bluecorrect
- North
- South
- East
Blue is a colour, while north, south and east are all directions.
Choose all that applyLevel 2
4. Which situations show a change in velocity even though the speed value stays the same?
- A car going around a bend at a steady 30 km/hcorrect
- A ball whirled in a circle at constant speedcorrect
- A car parked in a garage
- A book resting on a shelf
A change of direction changes velocity, so turning at steady speed still means velocity is changing.
Guess the numberLevel 2
5. A boat moves at 5 m/s and a river current flows at 2 m/s in the same direction. What is the boat's speed relative to the bank?
Answer: 7 m/s
Same-direction speeds add: 5 m/s + 2 m/s = 7 m/s relative to the bank.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
6. Speed tells you how fast something moves. What extra information does velocity add?
- the direction of motioncorrect
- the colour of the object
- the mass of the object
- the temperature of the object
Velocity is speed together with the direction of motion.

Distance and Time

Build the sentenceLevel 1
7. Build the sentence about distance and time.
Answer: It takes more time to walk a longer distance
Walking a longer distance takes more time than walking a shorter one.
Guess the numberLevel 1
8. How many minutes are there in one hour?
Answer: 60 minutes
There are 60 minutes in one hour.
Match the pairsLevel 1
9. Match each unit to what it measures.
Answer: Metre = Short distance; Kilometre = Long distance; Second = Short time; Hour = Long time
Metres and kilometres measure distance, while seconds and hours measure time.
Fact or fibLevel 2
10. On a distance-time graph, a line that gradually becomes less steep shows the object slowing down.
Answer: True
A decreasing slope means less distance covered per second, so the speed is dropping.
Fill the blankLevel 2
11. ____ speed equals the total distance divided by the total time for a whole journey.
- Averagecorrect
- Instant
- Maximum
- Zero
Average speed uses the totals for a trip, even when the speed varied along the way.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
12. On a distance-time graph, what does a flat horizontal line mean?
- the object is at restcorrect
- the object is moving very fast
- the object is speeding up
- the object is turning around
A flat line means the distance is not changing, so the object is stationary.

Fast and Slow

Match the pairsLevel 1
13. Match each thing to how fast it usually moves.
Answer: Snail = Very slow; Walking person = Medium; Cheetah = Very fast; Rocket = Fastest
Speed tells us how quickly something moves, from very slow to the fastest.
Multiple choiceLevel 1
14. Which animal is usually the fastest?
- A cheetahcorrect
- A snail
- A tortoise
- A sloth
A cheetah can run faster than the others, so it is the fastest.
Build the sentenceLevel 2
15. Build the word formula for speed.
Answer: speed equals distance divided by time
Speed equals distance divided by time.
Fact or fibLevel 2
16. To find the average speed of a two-part trip, you can just take the average of the two speeds.
Answer: False
You must divide total distance by total time; averaging the two speeds only works if equal times are spent at each speed.
Fill the blankLevel 2
17. Speed is calculated by dividing the distance travelled by the ____ taken.
- timecorrect
- mass
- force
- weight
Speed equals distance divided by time, so a given distance in less time means a higher speed.
Guess the numberLevel 2
18. A car travels 150 metres in 10 seconds. What is its speed?
Answer: 15 m/s
Speed = distance / time = 150 m / 10 s = 15 m/s.

Moving and Still

Fill the blankLevel 1
19. When something stays in one place and does not move, we say it is ____.
- stillcorrect
- loud
- warm
- heavy
An object that is not moving is described as still.
Odd one outLevel 1
20. Which one is NOT moving?
- A sleeping dogcorrect
- A child running
- A kite flying
- A marble rolling
A sleeping dog stays in one place, while the others are all moving.
Build the sentenceLevel 2
21. Build the rule for when an object is moving.
Answer: an object is moving when its position changes
An object is moving when its position changes over time relative to a reference point.
Choose all that applyLevel 2
22. Which statements about motion being relative are correct?
- A tree seems to move backward when seen from a car driving past itcorrect
- A book on a table is at rest relative to the roomcorrect
- Motion never depends on your point of view
- Nothing on Earth is ever moving
Motion depends on your point of view, so an object can be moving in one frame and still in another.
Fact or fibLevel 2
23. Two cars driving side by side at the same speed appear at rest relative to each other.
Answer: True
With equal speed and direction, the gap between them stays fixed, so each is at rest in the other's frame.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
24. You sit on a moving bus. Relative to the bus seat next to you, you are:
- at restcorrect
- moving at 100 m/s
- accelerating quickly
- spinning around
Your position does not change compared to the seat, so you are at rest relative to the bus.

Speeding Up and Slowing Down

Choose all that applyLevel 1
25. Which of these make a bike slow down? (choose all that apply)
- Squeezing the brakescorrect
- Riding up a steep hillcorrect
- Pedalling as fast as you can
- Rolling down a hill
Squeezing the brakes and riding uphill both make a bike slow down.
Fact or fibLevel 2
26. Acceleration measures how quickly an object's velocity changes.
Answer: True
Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity over time.
Fill the blankLevel 2
27. When an object speeds up, we say it is ____.
- acceleratingcorrect
- stopping
- resting
- floating
An increase in speed over time is called acceleration.
Guess the numberLevel 2
28. A car speeds up from 0 to 20 m/s in 5 seconds. What is its acceleration?
Answer: 4 m/s^2
Acceleration = change in velocity / time = 20 m/s / 5 s = 4 m/s^2.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
29. When a moving car slows down, this change in motion is called:
- decelerationcorrect
- gaining speed
- constant speed
- no change at all
Slowing down is deceleration, which is a negative acceleration.
Put in orderLevel 2
30. Order these speeds from slowest to fastest as a car pulls away from a stop.
Answer: 0 m/s -> 5 m/s -> 10 m/s -> 20 m/s
As the car accelerates, its speed rises step by step from 0 up to 20 m/s.

Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.

How you practise

This unit mixes 17 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.

Build the sentence
Choose all that apply
Fact or fib
Fill the blank
Guess the number
Listen and choose
Match the pairs
Multiple choice
Odd one out
Picture question
Put in order
Sequence recall
Sort into groups
Spell it
Tap the pairs
True or false
Type the answer

Practise Motion and Speed

120 questions across 20 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.

Play this unit

Read about Motion and Speed

Explainers from our blog on what this unit covers. Each one ends with real questions from the bank.

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