Question

A car travels from City A to City B to the north. It takes 4 hours, and the road mileage is 200 miles. The map shows that the cities are only 80 miles apart (straight-line distance). Calculate the average velocity and give the direction.

Answer 1

The distance travelled was 200 miles, but the displacement was 80 miles north. Divide displacement by the elapsed time to find vecocity. If you were interested in finding speed, you would have to dive the distance travelled by the elapsed time.