Distance & Displacement (AQA GCSE Physics)

Distance is a measure of how far an object travels

It is a scalar quantity - in other words, the direction is not important

Consider a 300 m race

From start to finish, the distance travelled by the athletes is 300 m

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

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