Question

A man walks along some sidewalks in the downtown area of a city. First, he walks west by 60 m, then he walks south by 80 m. What is the difference between his traveled distance and the magnitude of his displacement?

Answer 1

40m

Step-by-step explanation:

The traveled distance is just the sum of each traveled distance:

T=60m+80m=140m

The displacement is the distance between the final point and the initial point, in this case it will be the hypotenuse of a right angle, so we calculate this distance with Pythagoras' Theorem:

`D=√((60m)^2+(80m)^2)`=100m

The difference between the traveled distance and the displacement is thus

T-D=140m-100m=40m