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One of the following statements is false. Which one is it?

Multiple Choice
a. If a car only traveis in a straight line wthout turning, the size of the displacement and the distance travelled are the same.
b. The size of the displacement and the distance travelled can be different from each other:
c. The size of the displacement and the distance travelled can be the same.
d. The size of the displacement is always lecs than or equal to the distance traveled
e. The size of the displacement can be greater than the distance traveled

User Tyshon
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1 Answer

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Final answer:

The false statement is e. The size of the displacement cannot be greater than the distance traveled. Displacement has direction and is the change in position, while distance is the path's length without direction.

Step-by-step explanation:

The size of the displacement can be greater than the distance traveled. Displacement is defined as the change in position of an object and it has both magnitude and direction. However, the distance traveled is only concerned with the magnitude or size of the path taken and has no regard for direction. Considering the provided information, under certain circumstances, such as when a car moves in a straight line without turning, the size of the displacement can be the same as the distance traveled. However, if an object were to make a round trip or move back and forth without ending up at a different place from where it started, the displacement could be zero, but the distance traveled will be greater than zero. In the case of the pacing professor, the magnitude of displacement was 2.0 meters, whereas the distance she traveled was much greater, amounting to 150 meters. This tells us that displacement is the straight-line distance from the starting point to the ending point in a specific direction, while distance is the total length of the path covered without regard to direction.

User Seungho Lee
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