I was reading some physics stuff today, and I saw that in the Kinetic Energy Equation (KE = 0.5mv^2), v is used, but v represents speed instead of velocity. I understand why Kinetic Energy is related to speed and not merely velocity, but why is v used to represent it? v represents velocity in many other equations. It seems really screwed up because there is already common confusion about the difference between speed and velocity. Also, is there any other symbol for speed itself in physics? I know that c represents the speed of light, but I am talking about just general speed.

I looked at a bunch of web sites, and lots of them said that v represents velocity. That doesn't seem to make sense because total distance and not merely distance in a given direction would be what counts for energy usage. If something zigzags at a certain speed in a given direction, it uses more energy than it does if it moves at the same speed in a straight line for the same distance in the given direction. So it seems.

Thanks.