Question

What is the difference between distance and displacement? distance is a vector, while displacement is not a vector. displacement is a vector, while distance is not a vector. there is no difference between the two concepts; they may be used interchangeably?

Answer 1

A scalar is a quantity that has only magnitude and no direction while vector has both magnitude and direction.Distance is a scalar quantity because when you are asked to calculate the distance of an object from a point you will just calculate it's magnitude but if it is displacement you will need to calculate the magnitude and direction.