Question

Minossoo is training for cross country in the fall. He ran 5 miles east. Then he turned around and ran 4 miles west. Draw and label the vectors that show each segment of his trip and the resultant displacement vector. Find his resultant displacement.

Answer 1

The resultant vector is
`\overrightarrow{AB}-\overrightarrow{BC}`. The resultant displacement is 1 miles.

Explanation:

It is given that Minossoo is training for cross country in the fall. He ran 5 miles east. Then he turned around and ran 4 miles west.

Let he start from point A, then ran 5 miles east and reach to point B. After that he turned around and ran 4 miles west to reach point C.

`|\overrightarrow{AB}|=5miles`

`|\overrightarrow{BC}|=4miles`

His initial direction is east, then he turned and run along the west direction. The resultant vector is

`\vec{v}=\overrightarrow{AB}-\overrightarrow{BC}`

The resultant displacement

`\vec{v}=5-4=1`

Therefore resultant vector is
`\overrightarrow{AB}-\overrightarrow{BC}`. The resultant displacement is 1 miles.