Question

A child walks 5m east, then 3m north, then 1m east. What is the magnitude of the child's displacement? What is the direction of the child's displacement?

Answer 1

You should first break up all the distances and directions into vectors and then add all horizontal vectors and verticle vectors.
He goes, 5 + 1 m east = 6m East
3 m north
displacement = root(6^2 + 3^2) = 6.708m
direction = arcTan(verticle/horizontal) = arcTan(3/6) = 26.565 degrees