Question

A person walks 2 miles every day to work, leaving her front porch at 7:00 A.M. and arriving at work at 7:30 A.M. ON the way home she walks the same route and ends at her front porch. What is her displacement?

Answer 1

Answer:

The displacement is zero miles

Explanation:

The displacement of an object that moves from point A to point B is defined as

$d =B-A$

Where d is the displacement of the object. The displacement does not depend on the trajectory of the object. It only depends on the linear distance between the end point and the starting point.

In this case we know that the person walks from home to work and then walks from work to home. Therefore, the total displacement is the linear distance between the point where its journey begins and the point where the route ends.

The tour begins on the front porch of your house and ends on the front porch of your house (when you return from work). If we call A to the front porch of the house then the displacement is:

$d = A-A = 0$

The displacement is zero miles, since the person finishes the journey just where it started (front porch)