Question

A person walks 20m east, then 50m south, and stops. After 5 mins of resting the person resumes her walk towards the west for 20m. The entire trip took 10 minutes (resting time included).

a) What is the person's total distance traveled?
b) What is the person's displacement?
c) What is the person's average speed? (include calculations and units m/min)

Answer 1

The person's total distance traveled is 90m, the displacement is 30m south, and the average speed is 9 m/min.

Step-by-step explanation:

In the scenario, the person walked 20m east, 50m south, and then 20m west.

a) The total distance traveled by the person is simply the sum of these distances since distance does not have direction. Therefore, the total distance traveled is 20m + 50m + 20m = 90m.

b) The person's displacement is the straight-line distance from the starting point to the ending point in a specific direction. The person ends 30m south from where they started (50m south - 20m north), with no change in the east-west position because they walked an equal distance east and then back west. So, the displacement is 30m directly south.

c) The person's average speed includes the total distance traveled divided by the total time of the journey. With the distance being 90m and the time being 10 minutes, the average speed is 90m/10 minutes = 9 m/min.