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This seems like a cut and dry case of two tags that should be combined. Am I missing something?

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  • $\begingroup$ scalar vs vector? $\endgroup$ – Organic Marble Aug 28 '20 at 18:30
  • $\begingroup$ @OrganicMarble Is that really enough to merit separate tags? $\endgroup$ – called2voyage♦ Aug 28 '20 at 18:31
  • $\begingroup$ I've no idea. But there is a difference. $\endgroup$ – Organic Marble Aug 28 '20 at 18:31
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    $\begingroup$ A difference between the terms sure, but not sure there's a meaningful difference between the topics $\endgroup$ – called2voyage♦ Aug 28 '20 at 18:32
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While there may be a small distinction in that "speed" only applies to the absolute value of the velocity vector while the word "velocity" is commonly used both for the speed and the velocity vector, they certainly don't need separate tags.

One generally uses the letter "v" as in $v=\sqrt{GM/a}$ for speed as well as $\mathbf{v}$ as in $\mathbf{L} = m \mathbf{r} \times \mathbf{v}$ and in both contexts it's common to use the word "velocity" to refer to both the vector and it's scalar length.

Because of this users may be satisfied finding either one first and then not looking for the other, so if one is searching using one tag one may not find questions tagged with the other.

Since "velocity" is regularly used for both quantities, the should survive and appear as an option when "speed" is typed in the tag box.

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    $\begingroup$ Merge complete. $\endgroup$ – called2voyage♦ Sep 1 '20 at 12:23
  • $\begingroup$ Does SE give out "merge" badges? ;-) $\endgroup$ – uhoh Sep 1 '20 at 12:24

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