A person walks 150 meters due east then walks 30 meters due west. The entire trip takes the person 10 minutes. Determine the magnitude and direction of the person's total displacement...someone please explain :(
Ignore the mention of time. We are only concerned with displacement (time is used in velocity calculations). Recall that we have two ways to express "distance traveled" in physics: distance and displacement. Distance is a scalar quantity (that is, it has only a value). Displacement is a vector quantity (that is, it has a value AND a direction). The distance traveled is 150 + 30 = 180 m. The displacement is measured as a straight line from the start to the end point. |dw:1347398433719:dw|Let's let east be positive. The displacement is \[150 - 30 = 120 m\]
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