Question

An ant crawls 50 cm to the right, stops, and then crawls 30 cm to the left. Calculate the distance that the ant travels, and calculate the displacement of the ant.

Answer 1

Distance = 80cm

Displacement = 20cm

Step-by-step explanation:

Distance does not depend on direction, its the total amount traveled.

Displacement has a direction. Displacement is how far your stopping point is from the beginning point.

The ant could have walked 50cm to the east, stopped and turned around, walked 50cm to the west, walking a total distance of 100cm, but the displacement would be 0 because he ended up at the same spot that he started. It can get much more complicated than this, but this is a good start.

Answer 2

Answer and Explanation:

If the ant was to crawl 50cm to the right, then come back 30 cm, then the total distance walked would be 80cm.

- Combine 50cm and 30cm to get 80 cm.

For displacement, the answer is 20 cm.

- When calculating displacement, you use the initial (starting) distance. and subtract that from the final distance, giving you the displacement, or the amount traveled from the starting point to the final point if you were to make a straight line from the starting point to end point. (0 to 50, then back 30 the same direction, so subtract 30 from 50 to get 20)

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I hope this helps!