Question

A boy starts from his house and travels 5 km to reach his school. On finding it closed, he returns to his house.What Is, (a) the diatance travelled by the boy. (b) The final displacement of the boy?

Answer 1

a)Distance is the total length of the path travelled. Thus,the distance travelled by the boy is

    d=5+5=10km

b)Displacement is the shortest length between two points it is given as

    s=final position-initial position

    so 5-5=0

Answer 2

Concept:

Distance is the total path length while displacement is the smallest distance between two places.

Given:

Distance travelled by the boy to reach his school from home = 5km

Find:

We need to determine:

(a) The total distance travelled by the boy

(b) The final displacement of the boy

Solution:

• The whole length of the path travelled is the distance.
• It means that the distance travelled by the boy is equal to the sum of the distance travelled by the boy to reach school from home and from school to home.
• Therefore, distance = 5 + 5 = 10 km

• The smallest distance between two places is called displacement. It is denoted by the formula s = final position - beginning position.
• The boy just leaves and returns to his home during his journey. The initial and final locations are therefore identical. So, there is no displacement, s = 0

Thus, (a) the distance travelled by the boy is 10 km

(b) The final displacement of the body is zero.

#SPJ2