Question

NEED HELP ASAP
How are distance and displacement different?
A.) Displacement describes the total distance an object travels
B.) Displacement describes the result of an object's motion, regardless of the path traveled
C.) displacement takes into account the exact path of an object's motion
D.) displacement take into account the average speed of an object

Answer 1

Imagine an object that moves back and forth traveling 10 feet
So it goes 10 feet to the right, then 10 feet to the left.


After moving to the left, it has traveled a total distance of 10+10 = 20 feet

But the displacement would be 10+(-10) = 0 because we moved 10 feet in the positive direction (to the right) and then 10 feet in the negative direction (to the left) to counterbalance things. Overall, no change has happened.

Answer 2

ok i understand that

Answer 3

but im still confused by the difference if that makes since

Answer 4

Now imagine the object takes a more complicated path like this

the distance traveled will be larger since it's traveling more (imagine each arrow is 10 feet long). The displacement is still 0 though because we end up where we started, and the complexity of the path doesn't matter. All we care about is the before and after.

Answer 5

So that's why the answer is `B.) Displacement describes the result of an object's motion, regardless of the path traveled`

The use of "result" basically means "what is the final position of the object relative so its starting point?"

Answer 6

We see that the object has traveled 90 feet
but the displacement is 30 feet south of its original position since

Answer 7

thank you @jimthompson5910

Answer 8

No problem