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A baseball player hits a homerun. If the distance between each base is 27.4m

What is his total distance when he crosses home plate?
What is his displacement when he crosses home plate?

1 Answer

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Final answer:

In physics, the total distance a baseball player covers after hitting a home run is the sum of four times the distance between bases, while the displacement, being a vector quantity, is zero since the start and end points are the same.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student's question involves the concept of displacement and total distance covered, which are key concepts in Physics related to motion and vectors. When a baseball player hits a home run and rounds the bases, the total distance is the sum of the distances between each base. With a distance of 27.4m between bases in a baseball diamond, the player will cover 27.4m x 4 = 109.6m in total. However, the displacement is a vector quantity that measures the shortest path from the initial to the final position, and in this case, since he ends up where he started, the displacement is 0m.

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