Question

When an object is dropped from the top of a tall cliff, your teacher tells you to use -10 m/s2 for the approximate acceleration due to gravity. What sign should the displacement of the object have and why? A) The displacement should be positive, because it only moves in one direction. B) The displacement should be positive, because this choice would make calculations easier C) The displacement should be negative, because the negative represent a downward direction. D) The displacement should be positive, because you can never have less than zero displacement.

Answer 1

C) The displacement should be negative, because the negative represent a downward direction.

Step-by-step explanation:

The displacement should be taken as negative because the teacher has considered the downward direction as negative because the acceleration due to gravity acting in the downward direction is taken as negative by the teacher.

Vector quantities posses magnitude as well as direction, and here both the acceleration and the displacement are vector quantities.

• While solving a problem of classical mechanics we have to consider only one frame of reference and we cannot change it for different parameters.