Question

Displacement is always equal to distance travelled true or false

Answer 1

Since the displacement is measured along the shortest path between two points, its magnitude is always less than or equal to the distance.

Answer 2

It is false that, displacement is always equal to distance travelled.

• Displacement is the shortest distance (or, straight line distance) between the initial position and final position of an object which is undergoing motion.
• Now, the magnitude of displacement becomes equal to the magnitude of distance travelled, when an objects travels in a straight line.
• While travelling in a path which is not a straight line (eg. travelling in curved path) , the magnitude of displacement becomes less than the magnitude of distance travelled. This happens because, the straight line connecting the initial and final positions of such paths, has smaller length than the actual travelled distance.
• Example : An object has travelled through a semicircular path (with radius 'r'). Here, the travelled distance = πr , and , straight line distance between starting point and ending point (or, displacement) = 2r [So, both values are unequal.]
• Hence, we can conclude that displacement is not always equal to distance travelled.