Uniform
Uniform
All the same or all in the same manner; constant.
Worked Example
Problem: A car travels at a uniform speed of 60 km/h for 3 hours. How far does it travel?
Step 1: "Uniform speed" means the speed stays the same the entire time — it is constantly 60 km/h.
v=60 km/h
Step 2: Because the speed never changes, the distance is simply speed multiplied by time.
d=v×t=60×3=180 km
Answer: The car travels 180 km. Because the speed is uniform, there is no acceleration or deceleration to account for.
Why It Matters
The word "uniform" appears frequently in problems involving motion, probability, and geometry. In probability, a uniform distribution means every outcome is equally likely — like rolling a fair die where each face has a probability of 61. Recognizing that a quantity is uniform often simplifies calculations because you can treat it as a single constant value rather than a changing one.
Common Mistakes
Mistake: Confusing "uniform" with "equal to zero" or "not changing from zero."
Correction: Uniform means constant, but the constant value can be any number — large or small. A uniform speed of 100 km/h is still uniform; the key idea is that the value does not vary, not that it is zero.
Related Terms
- Constant — A value that does not change; synonym in many contexts
- Uniform Distribution — Probability distribution where all outcomes are equally likely
- Rate — Often described as uniform when it stays the same
- Variable — Opposite idea — a quantity that can change