Question

At 3:00 P.M., a bank robber is spotted driving north on I-15 at milepost 124. His speed is 133.0 mi/h. At 3:37 P.M., he is spotted at milepost 181 doing 101.0 mi/h. (Assume a straight highway). Assume north to be positive.What is the bank robber’s displacement during this time interval? Enter a positive value if the displacement is toward north and enter a negative value if the displacement is toward south.

Answer 1

The displacement of an object is defined as a change in the position of the object. If the final position is x_f and the initial position is x_i, the displacement is given by:

`\Delta x=x_f-x_i`

Since the driver is spotted at the milepost 124 and then at the milepost 181, then the final position is 181 miles, and the initial position is 124 miles.

Substitute those values into the equation to find the displacement:

`\Delta x=181mi-124mi=57mi`

Then, the change in position was 57 miles towards the North.

Therefore, during that time interval, the bank robber's displacement was 57 miles towards the North. Then, the answer is: 57.