Question

An ant climbs 5 stairs of width 20 cm and height 20 cm. Find the distance covered and displacement.

Answer 1

The total distance covered by the ant is

$s=5(20+20)=200\;cm$.

The ant has horizontal displacement of $x=5*20=100 \; cm$ and vertical displacement of $y=5*20=100\; cm$.

So the displacement is

$d=\sqrt{x^2+y^2} \\ d=\sqrt{100^2+100^2}\\ d=100\sqrt{2} \\ d=141.42\;cm$