interestingasfuck

This speed is the Specific Impulse which is a measure of how effective the fuel mass is used. It is equivalent to the effective exhaust velocity, which is basically the mean exhaust velocity as the real exhaust velocity depends on the position in the exhaust. The specific impulse is more often given in seconds like in the Wikipedia page for the thruster and this representation is connected to the speed-based representation by dividing the effective exhaust velocity by the standard gravitational acceleration at sea level. Mass is not present in both of these representations because this way they are the impulse per unit mass of propellant.

Electric thrusters reach very high exhaust velocities, but the fuel mass flow is limited which leads to low thrust. Chemical engines reach high thrust, but their exhaust velocities are quite low in comparison.