Distance & Displacement

Check For Understanding

What is a scalar quantity

Measurement with no direction

What is a vector quantity

Measurement with a direction

What is distance

Sum of all the points

What is displacement

The distance between begining and the end position.

A person walks 50 meters west, then 10 meters east,then moves 60 meters east. What is the person's distance moved? What is the person's displacement?

The distance is 120 meters.

Displacement is 20 meters east.

A car travels 25 miles south, then moves 15 miles east. What is the distance moved by the car? What is the displacement of the car?

The distance is 40 miles. The displacement is 29.1 miles SE.

I go on a morning run for 3 miles. I start in my bedroom and end in my bedroom. What is my displacement? What is my distance?

Displacement is 0 (because we ended back in the spot we started in)

Distance is 3 miles.