Question

you walk from the park to your friend's house, then back to your house. (a) What is the distance traveled? (b) What is your displacement? If you walk from your house to the library, then back to your house, repeat (a) and (b).

Answer 1

The distance traveled is the total length of the path taken, while displacement is the distance between the initial and final positions in a straight line. Displacement is a vector quantity because it has both magnitude and direction.

Step-by-step explanation:

a. The distance traveled is the total length of the path taken. In this case, you traveled from the park to your friend's house, and then back to your own house. So, the distance traveled is the sum of these two distances.

b. Displacement is the distance between the initial and final positions, considering only the straight line between them. In this case, since you ended up back at your own house, the displacement is zero because you did not change your position.

c. Displacement is a vector quantity because it has both magnitude (the distance between the initial and final positions) and direction. In this case, the direction is the straight line between the initial and final positions.

Answer 2

Step-by-step explanation:

The total distance in a path is called distance.

The shortest distance between two points is called displacement.

a) Here, the distance travelled between the park to your friend's house and back is

Distance between park to friends house + Distance from friend's house to your house.

b) Displacement would be the shortest distance between the park and your house.

a) Distance walked between your house to library and back is

Distance between your house and library + Distance between your house and library

b) Displacement would be zero (0) as the distance between you initial point and final point is zero. Here, the initial and final points are the same