Question

You are waiting in the ticket line at a rock concert. Originally you were 50 meters from the ticket booth and now you are only 5 meters away. What is your change in position?

Answer 1

here our distance is given with respect to ticket booth

initial distance is given 50 m from the booth

So our initial position is

$x_i = 50 m$

now after this finally we reach at final position

$x_f = 5 m$

now change in position is given as

$\Delta x = x_f - x_i$

$\Delta x = 5 - 50 = - 45 m$

so change in position is 45 m in magnitude and since we are coming closer to the booth so its coming negative in sign