Final answer:
The student's question involves finding the total displacement for a girl walking 5 blocks east and then 2 blocks north. The displacement is the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle formed by these walks, which is approximately 5.385 blocks at an angle of 21.8° north of east.
Step-by-step explanation:
The subject of this question is Physics, and it is at the High School level. We are given that a girl walks 5 blocks east and then two blocks north. To find her total displacement, we can view this movement as a right-angled triangle where the legs represent the paths traveled east and north. Using the Pythagorean Theorem, we calculate the displacement as the hypotenuse of this triangle.
Displacement (D) can be found using the formula D = √(x² + y²), where x and y are the legs of the right triangle. Thus, D = √(5² + 2²) = √(25 + 4) = √(29) ≈ 5.385 blocks. The direction of this displacement can be calculated using the inverse tangent function (also called arctan), which gives us an angle θ. The angle θ equals arctan(y/x), or arctan(2/5), which is approximately 21.8° north of east.
Therefore, her total displacement is approximately 5.385 blocks at an angle of 21.8° north of east.