Question

A woman walks to work every day leaving her front porch at 9:00am. There is some construction in her neighborhood so she has to take a much longer route. She walks 2 blocks North, turns and walks 2 blocks East, turns and walks another block North, turns and walks another block East, then turns and walks 2 blocks South, turns and walks 1 block East and then finally turns and walks 1 block south. Calculate her total distance and displacement.

Answer 1

The complete length of the path between any two points is called distance. Displacement is the direct length between any two points when measured along the minimum path between them.

Let's draw a diagram:

So, the distance can be calculated as:

`\begin{gathered} d=2+2+1+1+2+1+1 \\ so: \\ d=10_{\text{ }}blocks \end{gathered}`

And the displacement will be:

`\begin{gathered} \Delta x=4-0 \\ so: \\ \Delta x=4_{\text{ }}blocks \end{gathered}`

Answer:

Her total distance was 10 blocks and her total displacement was 4 blocks