Distance & Displacement
- Distance is a measure of how far an object travels
- It is a scalar quantity - in other words, the direction is not important
The athletes run a total distance of 300 m
- Consider a 300 m race
- From start to finish, the distance travelled by the athletes is 300 m
Displacement
- Displacement is a measure of how far something is from its starting position, along with its direction
- It is a vector quantity - it describes both magnitude and direction
The athletes run a total distance of 300 m, but end up 100 m from where they started
- Consider the same 300 m race again
- The athletes have still run a total distance of 300 m (this is indicated by the arrow in red)
- However, their displacement at the end of the race is 100 m to the right (this is indicated by the arrow in green)
- If they had run the full 400 m, their final displacement would be zero
