A slight confusion on terminology.
Tangential speed refers to the linear speed when travelling across a circular path, it refers to the distance covered across the circular path for a given time. I have seen the word Tangential velocity used with tangential speed in various websites, shouldn't tangential velocity refer to displacement with time in that motion?
Is there something wrong in my point? Tks for helping
Best Answer
In a 2D radial coordinate system, there are two orthogonal directions: radial and tangential. You could call these $\hat{r}$ and $\hat{\theta}$. Tangential velocity is the component of velocity in $\hat{\theta}$. It is still directional because it can be positive or negative. Tangential speed is the magnitude of this velocity.
Although the magnitude of the velocity vector has a special name (speed), it's still okay to talk about velocity components or velocity magnitude and call it velocity. Most vectors don't have a special name for their magnitude, anyway. For example, the magnetic field vector and the magnetic field strength are $\vec{B}$ and $B$ and they could both be referred to as just magnetic field (the surrounding context should make it as clear as it needs to be whether magnitude or vector is meant).