Deborah R. Fowler

Vectors, Velocity and Angular Velocity

Updated June 22 2013 Updated June 6 2026 - restyled

This originated from the Tank Game Exercise in ITGM-315 - some review of these concepts is sometimes helpful.

Given that we know the speed of an object (usually in distance units/time units ie. miles per hour, units per second) and the angle it is pointing toward (later we'll talk about angularVelocity) given a reference direction, say the x-axis, how do I find the new position?

We can calculate the distance it has traveled = speed * elapsed time, let's call this h

ie. units/sec * sec = units

We can calculate the rotation = angularSpeed * elapsed time, let's call this direction

ie. degrees/sec * sec = degrees