Question

Suppose that an object travels from one point in space to another. Make a comparison between the magnitude of the displacement and the distance traveled by this object.

A) The displacement is either less than or equal to the distance traveled.
B) The displacement is either greater than or equal to the distance traveled.
C) The displacement is always equal to the distance traveled.
D) The displacement can be either greater than, smaller than, or equal to the distance traveled.

Answer 1

A) The displacement is either less than or equal to the distance traveled.

Step-by-step explanation:

The displacement is a vector, which is equal to the difference between the vector representing final position (distance from the origin) and the vector representing initial position.

Opposite to it, the distance is a scalar, and is always additive, independent of the direction of the trajectory.

So, only in the case of a straight line trajectory from one point to another, the distance can be equal to displacement, being larger otherwise.

In the limit case, if the initial and the final position are the same point, the displacement is 0, whilst the distance can be any.