Question

5. Fabiola Gianotti traveled from her home in Milan to

CERN to preform a particle physics experiment. She
drives north 32 km, then west 286 km, then north 36 km
more, and lastly, east 1 km. What is her displacement(in
km) over this trip?

Answer 1

So, Fabiola Gianotti's displacement over this trip is -219 km. This means she ended up 219 kilometers to the east of her starting point.

Explanation:

To find Fabiola Gianotti's displacement over this trip, we can use vector addition since she's moving in different directions. We'll break down her movements into north and west as positive directions and south and east as negative directions.

She goes north 32 km.

She goes west 286 km.

She goes north 36 km.

She goes east 1 km.

Now, let's calculate her displacement:

North: 32 km + 36 km = 68 km (positive, since both are in the same direction)

West: 286 km (negative, as it's in the opposite direction)

East: 1 km (positive, but we'll subtract it since it's in the opposite direction)

Displacement = North - West - East

Displacement = 68 km - 286 km - 1 km

Displacement = -219 km