Question

Suppose movement to the right is positive, and movement to the left is negative. A pen is 22 cm from the left edge of the desk. You move it to be only 15 cm from the left edge of the desk. What is its displacement? Is the value positive or negative?

Options:
Option 1: Displacement is 15 cm, and it's positive.
Option 2: Displacement is 7 cm, and it's positive.
Option 3: Displacement is -7 cm, and it's negative.
Option 4: Displacement is -15 cm, and it's negative.

Answer 1

The displacement of the pen is -7 cm which indicates a movement of 7 cm to the left, hence it's a negative value. The correct answer is Option 3: Displacement is -7 cm, and it's negative.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question is asking for the displacement of a pen when it is moved from one position to another on a desk. Displacement refers to the change in position of an object and is a vector quantity, which means it has both magnitude and direction. If we assume moving to the right is positive and moving to the left is negative, and the pen is moved from 22 cm from the left edge to 15 cm from the left edge, the displacement would be the final position minus the initial position (15 cm - 22 cm), which equals -7 cm. Therefore, the displacement is 7 cm to the left, and since the leftward movement is considered negative, its value is negative.

The correct answer is Option 3: Displacement is -7 cm, and it's negative. This result means the pen was moved 7 cm closer to the left edge of the desk.