Shutter Speed: Fast Freezes - Slow Shows

http://digital-photography-school.com/6-phrases-to-help-you-learn-photography-faster/

The phrase for shutter speed is my favorite: Fast freezes - slow shows.
Shutter speed is one of the most important things in photography. The phrase explains it in a simple way- a fast shutter speed will 'freeze' a picture, or make it sharper. A slow shutter speed will 'show' the movement and the picture will become blurry. The thing that you need to know that isn't in the phrase is that a shutter speed- represented by 1/ (some number(20, 400, etc.)) - is a portion of a second. So a larger number (1/500) is a faster speed, lower (1/60) is slower.