Question

A race card drives one lap around a race track that is 500 meters in length. How is this displacement different from the distance traveled

Answer 1

Answer:

Distance is 500 m, displacement is 0

Explanation:

Distance and displacement are defined in two different ways:

- Distance is the total length of the path covered by an object in motion - so it depends on the path taken. In this problem, the distance travelled by the car corresponds to the length of one lap, which is the length of the track, so 500 m

- Displacement is the distance in a straight line between the final point and the initial point of the motion. This means that displacement does not depend on the path taken, but only on the starting and ending point of the motion. In this problem, the car completes one lap, so the final position of the car is equal to its starting position - therefore the displacement is zero, since the distance between these two points is zero.