Question

What is the total displacement of the car after 5 h?




A.
0 km


B.
15 km


C.
20 km


D.
40 km
http://static.k12.com/calms_media/media/935500_936000/935670/1/a5e85fcfb9014715830fb63ef2df3c9bfd70bee5/MS2_PHY_04_03_401_PIC_graph_displace_car.jpg

Answer 1

The figure is a lie graph with the displacement as your y-axis and time (in hours) as your x axis. If you read the graph carefully the displacement at time=0 is 0 because, well you didn't go anywhere. The same can be said at time = 5 hours because you still ended up in the same position.

Displacement, does not care about the 'distance traveled' it only cares about where you are from start to finish.