Question

A locomotive moved 18.0 m [W] in a time of 6.00 s and stopped. After stopping, the locomotive moved 12.0 m [E] in 10.0 s. a. Determine the distance travelled by the locomotive. Show your work.
b. Determine the displacement of the locomotive. Show your work.

Answer 1

Answer:

a) The distance travelled by the the locomotive is 30 meters, b) The final displacement of the locomotive is 6 meters westwards.

Explanation:

a) The distance travelled is the sum of magnitudes of distances covered by the train during its motion. That is to say:

$s_{T} = 18\,m + 12\,m$

$s_{T} = 30\,m$

The distance travelled by the the locomotive is 30 meters.

b) The displacement is the vectorial distance of the train with respect to a point of reference, since west and east are antiparallel to each other, calculations can be simplified to a scalar form. Let suppose that movement to the east is positive. The calculations are presented below:

$s_{P} = -18\,m +12\,m$

$s_{P} = -6\,m$

The final displacement of the locomotive is 6 meters westwards.