Question

Joey drives his car 7 km North. He stops for lunch and then drives 5 km south. What distance did he cover? What is his total displacement?

Answer 1

Distance: 12 kilometers

Displacement: 2 kilometers

Explanation:

The first thing is to draw a picture of the situation, just like this:

The distance is the sum of the distances traveled, like this:

`d=7+5=12`

The displacement is the vector sum, the distance from the starting point to the end point, therefore

`D=7-5=2`

The distance is 12 kilometers and the displacement is 2 kilometers.