Distance and Displacement
Distance and Displacement
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DISTANCE measures how far an object has travelled, regardless of its starting point or final position. It is a SCALAR quantity, meaning it only has magnitude and NO direction.
e.g. Let’s say a person travels from location A to B to C in the following diagram:
The total DISTANCE travelled by the person would be:
600m + 400m = 1000m
DISPLACEMENT refers to how far an object is from its starting point and in what direction — it's a straight-line measurement from START to FINISH.
Unlike distance, displacement is a VECTOR quantity because it considers both magnitude AND direction.
e.g. To find the DISPLACEMENT of the same example, you would look at the DIRECT distance from the START (point A) to the FINISH (point C).
You would also need to give a DIRECTION from the START to the FINISH. This could be in the form of an ANGLE and can be found using a PROTRACTOR on a scale diagram.
DISTANCE measures how far an object has travelled, regardless of its starting point or final position. It is a SCALAR quantity, meaning it only has magnitude and NO direction.
e.g. Let’s say a person travels from location A to B to C in the following diagram:
The total DISTANCE travelled by the person would be:
600m + 400m = 1000m
DISPLACEMENT refers to how far an object is from its starting point and in what direction — it's a straight-line measurement from START to FINISH.
Unlike distance, displacement is a VECTOR quantity because it considers both magnitude AND direction.
e.g. To find the DISPLACEMENT of the same example, you would look at the DIRECT distance from the START (point A) to the FINISH (point C).
You would also need to give a DIRECTION from the START to the FINISH. This could be in the form of an ANGLE and can be found using a PROTRACTOR on a scale diagram.
