Question

Determine the displacement and distance covered by a man if he walks 10 m north, turns east and walks 20 m, and then turns right and walks 10 m.

Answer 1

20m

Step-by-step explanation:

The two tens cancel each other out, as they are in opposite directions. Now we only care about the 20m, which if we have no 10's, will end up 20m away.

Answer 2

The distance covered by man is 40 m and the displacement is 20 m towards the east.

Distance and Displacement

The distance can be defined as the measurement of the total ground covered by an object during its motion. It is a scalar quantity.

The displacement can be defined as the measurement of the shortest path over the ground is covered by an object during its motion. It is a vector quantity.

Given that a man starts walking towards the north and covered 10 m. he turns east and walks for 20 m then turns right and walks for 10 m. The attachment shows the total ground area covered by the man.

The total distance covered by the man is given below.

`D = 10 + 20 + 10`

`D = 40 \;\rm m`

The displacement of the man is the difference between its final position and initial position.

`d = 20 - 0`

`d = 20 \;\rm m`

Hence we can conclude that the distance covered by man is 40 m and the displacement is 20 m towards the east.

To know more about distance and displacement, follow the link given below.