Question

how is it possible for a distance to have value while its displacement is zero

Answer 1

Answer:

Yes , displacement can be zero even if a body has covered some distance. For example , consider two points A and B 1km far from each other, if a body travels from A to B and comes back to A , its distance will be (1+1) km while its displacement will be 0 , because object is back to its initial position.

hope this helps you..

Answer 2

Displacement is a vector quantity ,it depends upon direction and magnitude.Therefore, displacement could be defined as the shortest distance between two points. It can be positive, zero or negative.

whereas, distance covered by a particle in its journey is the total length of the path covered by the body from its starting point to the end point. As the particle starts its journey, distance can only increase throughout the journey. In case of displacement, it could increase, decrease or remain constant throughout the journey.

So displacement can be zero while distance will have a definite value.

Hope you understood. :)