Question

Dante runs 4 laps around a 453-meter track. What is his displacement?

Answer 1

Dante's displacement after running 4 laps around a 453-meter track is zero because displacement is directional and he ends up where he started, despite the distance covered being 1812 meters.

Step-by-step explanation:

Dante's displacement after running 4 laps around a 453-meter track is actually zero. Displacement, in physics, refers to the change in position of an object and is a vector quantity, which means it has both magnitude and direction.

In the case of Dante running around a track, even though he covers a distance, he ends up at the same place where he started after completing the laps, so his starting and ending positions are identical, giving him a displacement of zero meters. Displacement differs from distance, which does not take direction into account and would be the total ground covered, in this case, 4 laps times 453 meters per lap, equating to 1812 meters traveled.

It's important to note that while distance and displacement can sometimes have the same numerical value, they are different concepts in physics. Distance is a scalar quantity - it only has magnitude and no direction. Therefore, Dante's effort, while significant in terms of distance covered, results in no displacement.

Answer 2

Given:

The length of the track is,

`L=453\text{ m}`

Dante runs 4 laps around the track.

The displacement is the difference between the final and the initial position.

As Dante completes 4 laps means she came to the starting point AFTER THE COMPLETE laps.

Hence the difference between the final and the initial position is zero.

So, the displacement is zero.