Question

A girl sets out from her home to deliver flyers for her yards, traveling east along her street. At 1km and 10min later she runs out of flyers and has to retrace her steps back to her house to get more. And takes an additional 10 minutes. After picking up more flyers, she sets out again on the same path, continuing where she left off, and ends up 3km from her house. This third leg of her trip takes 20 minutes. At this point she turns back toward her house, heading west. After 5km and 30 minutes, she stops to rest.

A. What is the total displacement to the point where she stops to rest?
B. What is the average velocity during her entire trip?
C. What is the total distance traveled?

Answer 1

Jill's total displacement is -0.75 km to the west of her home, the magnitude of her displacement is 0.75 km, and the total distance traveled during her trip is 3.75 km. Her average velocity is -0.776 km/h west.

Step-by-step explanation:

The questions posed relate to a situation where a girl named Jill is delivering flyers for her yard sale and involves calculating her displacement, distance, and average velocity during the trip.

Jill's total displacement is her final position relative to her starting point. After traveling 0.5 km east and then 0.5 km back west, her displacement is zero. Traveling another 1.0 km east and then 1.75 km west, her total displacement is 0.75 km to the west of her starting point.

The magnitude of Jill's final displacement is simply the absolute value of her total displacement, which is 0.75 km.

To find the average velocity, we divide the total displacement by the total time. With a displacement of -0.75 km over 58 minutes (or 0.9667 hours), the average velocity is approximately -0.776 km/h to the west.

The total distance Jill traveled is the sum of all individual distances covered: 0.5 km east, 0.5 km west, another 1.0 km east, and finally 1.75 km west, totaling 3.75 km.