As trading speed accelerated, investors' time horizons shrank.

WSJ: New Twist Is Added to an Age-Old Saga

But they have not been widely adopted because they have to be accelerated to Mach 1 (the speed of sound) before the air inside them becomes compressed enough for them to work.

ECONOMIST: Jet propulsion

The speed of land loss has accelerated while aquifers run dry.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The speed of technology has also accelerated.

WSJ: Why High-Tech Companies Are Moving to the City

Furthermore, when something does go haywire, the speed at which traders react is vastly accelerated.

FORBES: Lessons From The Flash Crash

Engineered for Performance: AMD App Acceleration drives GPU-accelerated features in Windows 8 improving graphics performance and application speed, while advanced GPU compute capabilities enable users to run multiple applications smoothly, enjoy beautifully rich and clear video playback, and revel in lightning-fast game play.

ENGADGET: AMD Radeon HD 8000 series GPUs official for laptops, desktop series now shipping to OEMs

One is the speed with which China globalised in the 1980s and 1990s and then accelerated to a breakneck pace after accession to the World Trade Organisation in 2001.

ECONOMIST: The Beijing Olympics

However, in cases where lifesaving drugs are being proposed and there are no good alternatives, our current speed, while faster than others, may not be fast enough, meriting further improvements in accelerated approval.

FORBES: The FDA Is Faster. Now Let's Make It Safer

Meeting in Washington last week, the two leaders agreed to speed up a handover of combat operations in Afghanistan to Afghan forces, raising the prospect of an accelerated U.S. withdrawal from the country.

MSN: Qatar aims for Afghan peace process by 2014