Here’s a fast-paced fact for you: the first person to define speed as distance over time was none other than Galileo Galilei. Before him, people didn’t have a clear mathematical way to describe how fast something was moving. Galileo’s insight laid the groundwork for everything from race cars to rocket launches.

And here’s a fun twist—the word “speed” comes from the Old English “spēd,” which originally meant “success” or “prosperity”. So in a way, going fast has always been linked to getting ahead!