Question

Are the following quantities scalar or vector?

(i) distance
(ii) speed
(iii) displacement
(iv) velocity
(v) mass
(vi) weight

Answer 1

Scalar only has magnitudes (which is the value), but not directions; while vector has both.

(i) Distance: scalar

(ii) speed: scalar

(iii) displacement: vector

(iv) velocity: vector

(v) mass: scalar

(vi) weight: vector

Answer 2

i) Scalar

ii) Scalar

iii) Vector

iv) Vector

v) Scalar

vi) Vector

Explanation: So basically a one line explanation would be ‘SCALAR is a quantity fully described by only magnitude and no direction whereas VECTOR is a quantity which has both magnitude and direction.

So here if u see, distance, speed and mass are quantities which only has a magnitude and u can’t describe a direction to it. But displacement, velocity and weight are quantities with both the magnitude and direction.

Now if displacement is a vector, velocity, which is displacement/time, is also a vector.

And weight is a vector because weight is a force and force is a vector quantity.

if u don’t understand leave a comment! (Hope u understood!)