Question

Stan walks 10km west to the grocery store. He shops then walks back 10 km east back to his house. What distance did he cover? What was his displacement?

Answer 1

Answer:

His displaceent is 0 km because he ends his walk where he started. The total distance of his walk is 20 km because he walks 10 km to the store + 10km back home.

Answer 2

Stan covered a distance of 20km and his displacement is 0Km

Distance

• Distance is how much an object has moved during its motion.
• That is if an object moves from point A to point B and then to point C, the distance is calculated as the sum of distances between point A and B and between point B and C.
• Distance is a scalar quantity
• In this question Stan travels 10km west and then 10km east back to his house. Hence the distance traveled is20km

Displacement

• Displacement is defined as the overall change in position of the object
• That is if an object moves from point A to point B and then to point C, the displacement is calculated as the final distance between point A and C
• Displacement is a vector quantity
• In this question, Stan travels 10km west and then again 10km east back to his house. Essentially he reaches back to the same position where he started and hence his displacement is 0km