Question

Ed rolls a ball forward across the floor. it hits a wall 12 meters away and rolls back along the same path. it stops 5 meters from the wall. what is the displacement of the ball?

Answer 1

The displacement is 7 meters.

Explanation:

Given : Ed rolls a ball forward across the floor. it hits a wall 12 meters away and rolls back along the same path. it stops 5 meters from the wall.

We have to find the displacement of ball.

Let AB denotes the wall .

And CD be the 12 meters distance that ball covers when it hit the wall

and it rolls back 5 meters FE along the same path before it stops.

So , total distance is 12 + 5 = 17 meters.

And displacement of an object is defined as the net distance covered by the object.

So here the displacement of the ball is distance it covers from C to G that is 12 - 5 = 7 meters.

So, the displacement is 7 meters.

Answer 2

Ed rolls a ball forward and it hits the wall 12 meters away. Than it rolls back along the same path and stops 5 meters from the wall.
The displacement is:
12 m - 5 m = 7 meters