Distance equals speed times what?

Distance equals speed times time. This relationship describes how far an object travels when its speed remains constant over a measured interval.

The formula is commonly written d = s × t, where d is distance, s is speed, and t is time. Rearranging it gives the other two familiar formulas: speed equals distance divided by time, and time equals distance divided by speed. The units must match—for example, kilometers per hour multiplied by hours produces kilometers.

The equation works directly for uniform motion. If an object changes speed, the same relationship can still describe total distance when “speed” is replaced by average speed. In physics, velocity is different from speed because velocity includes direction, while distance measures the total path traveled rather than the straight-line displacement between two points.