Learn what displacement is, and how it compares to distance travelled.
Log in alpayne 9 years agoPosted 9 years ago. Direct link to alpayne's post “what is the difference be...” what is the difference between displacement and magnitude of displacement? Thank you! • (6 votes) Ty 7 years agoPosted 7 years ago. Direct link to Ty's post “Bare minimum: Displacemen...” Bare minimum: Displacement gives where it was and where it is, but magnitude of displacement gives where it was and infinitely many places where it could be. Slightly more detail: Displacement will give you both the current and previous locations of the object in question, but magnitude of displacement will give you the previous location of the object, and a radius from the original location. This radius can be used to describe a circle to represent all of the possible current locations of the object in question. (2 votes) yisehakuk a year agoPosted a year ago. Direct link to yisehakuk's post “if the variable is y, doe...” if the variable is y, does that change anything • (2 votes) Coding Potter a year agoPosted a year ago. Direct link to Coding Potter's post “Physics is all about conv...” Physics is all about conventions and symbols. The symbol for displacement is But for the question of "does that change anything" - it of course does not change anything if you evidently describe using a statement "Let y be displacement", and continue using P.S.: However you might need to know kaiden.bumphus a year agoPosted a year ago. Direct link to kaiden.bumphus's post “I get the difference but ...” I get the difference but why would we ever care about distance? • (0 votes) Charles LaCour a year agoPosted a year ago. Direct link to Charles LaCour's post “In any situation where yo...” In any situation where you have losses or effects that depend on distance and not position. For example, if you were trying to work out what the velocity of an object moving through a fluid that causes drag. (5 votes) Jonathan Borisch 7 years agoPosted 7 years ago. Direct link to Jonathan Borisch's post “In the figures above, for...” In the figures above, for example Fig. 1, the picture defines the placement of each axis. In relation to this placement we are given the starting value(1.5m), and the final value (3.5m). In a more complex scenario, what might determine this placement? As motion is entirely relative, will these placement really matter? Basically I mean to ask; In a practical advanced application of this, say a ball thrown off a cliff, would any of our calculations become conflicting or invalid if our placement of axis was incorrect? Or is it entirely inconsequential, and simply used here for visual aid? • (2 votes) YASH 7 years agoPosted 7 years ago. Direct link to YASH's post “Is there any example of a...” Is there any example of a body covering zero displacement but some specific distance other than that of EARTH REVOLVING AROUND THE SUN.? • (1 vote) Andrew M 7 years agoPosted 7 years ago. Direct link to Andrew M's post “of course there is. See ...” of course there is. See if you can thing of one. I bet you can. Take a walk around the room before you come back to your computer to answer. (3 votes) rsna 4 years agoPosted 4 years ago. Direct link to rsna's post “Hi, I did not exactly und...” Hi, I did not exactly understand the difference between distance and distance traveled. Thanks! • (1 vote) Charles LaCour 4 years agoPosted 4 years ago. Direct link to Charles LaCour's post “Conciser walking around a...” Conciser walking around a 1 km race track, if you make 1 full lap around the track you will have traveled 1 km but you are at a distance of 0 from where you started. (3 votes) Rebecca Armour 9 years agoPosted 9 years ago. Direct link to Rebecca Armour's post “I am confused between dis...” I am confused between distance and distance travelled. I understand the distance is the magnitude/size of displacement between to objects and that distance travels is the total length of the path travelled between two objects. I don't understand the difference between them. • (0 votes) Andrew M 9 years agoPosted 9 years ago. Direct link to Andrew M's post “Displacement is a vector,...” Displacement is a vector, right? (5 votes) 😊 5 years agoPosted 5 years ago. Direct link to 😊's post “how the velocity of an ob...” how the velocity of an object changes whithyime • (2 votes) Tessie a year agoPosted a year ago. Direct link to Tessie's post “Velocity is the ratio of ...” Velocity is the ratio of displacement to time. When an object is displaced from its original position to its new position. It covers a distance within a period of time. For example, a toy car moves due north and covers 2 meters within two seconds (1 vote) sel 5 years agoPosted 5 years ago. Direct link to sel's post “How can an object have in...” How can an object have initial velocity if it hasn't moved... ? • (1 vote) Andrew M 5 years agoPosted 5 years ago. Direct link to Andrew M's post “when you throw a rock, it...” when you throw a rock, it has velocity when you let it go, right? That's the initial velocity (assuming you are doing some sort of calculation dealing with the projectile motion of the rock) (2 votes) uroz 5 years agoPosted 5 years ago. Direct link to uroz's post “this is kind of confusing...” this is kind of confusing for me. I don't get how to apply the equation onto the displacement numbers. Can someone please help me, Thanks! • (1 vote) Mahnoor Umar 4 years agoPosted 4 years ago. Direct link to Mahnoor Umar's post “Ok,So let's consider Obj...” Ok, (2 votes)Want to join the conversation?
x or s by convention and so physicists and students normally use that. y as the symbol.y refers to vertical displacement (along y-axis) and x refers to horizonal displacement (along x-axis) in 2-dimensional motion.
If we take the magnitude of displacement, we have a distance - it's the straight line distance between the start point and the end point
But what if you did not follow a straight line to get there? Then the distance you traveled is larger than the straight line distance. It's still a distance, but it's a larger distance than the magnitude of the displacement.
So let's consider Object A.
If you look at the diagram, the green dot is showing the initial position of the object. It coincides with 0 on the number line.
Hence, initial position of A = 0m
The arrow head shows the final position of the object which is coinciding with 7 on the number line
Hence, final position of A = 7m
By using formula,
Δx = xf-xθ
= 7m-0m
= +7m
In this way, you can solve for the other objects
