Question

What is the displacement of an object that starts at the origin and moves to position -8 m? (Show all work)

Answer 1

The displacement of a body is the distance that exists between the starting point and the end point of the trajectory of an object.

It is represented by a vector and does not depend on the path made by the object, but on the final and initial point.

To calculate this vector 'd' we do the following procedure.

Let
`(x_1,y_1)` and
`(x_2,y_2)` be the initial and final points of the trajectory of a body, so, the vector d is:

`d = [x_2-x_1]i + [y_2-y_1]j`

For the given problem we are told that the object starts the movement from the origin, which is the point (0,0) and ends at the point (0, -8)

Then the vector is:

`d = [0 - 0]i + [-8 - 0]j\ m`

`d = -8j\ m`

Then the displacement has a magnitude of 8 meters