He goes 12km north 6km east 12km south 3km west what is the distance and displacement
1 answer:
Distance is 33 km, displacement is 3 km east
Explanation:
- Distance is a scalar quantity equal to the total length of the path covered by an object during its motion, regardless of its direction.
- Displacement is a vector connecting the starting position of motion of an object to its final position. It is a vector quantity, therefore it has both magnitude and direction.
In this problem, the motion of the person is:
12 km north
6 km east
12 km south
3 km west
Therefore, the distance is:
The displacement instead can be calculated by comparing the final position with the initial position. We notice that:
- the person goes 12 km north and 12 km south, so he didn't move in the north-direction
- The person goes 6 km east and 3 km west, so his final position is 3 km east
Therefore, the displacement is 3 km east.
Learn more about distance and displacement:
#LearnwithBrainly
You might be interested in
The propagation errors we can find the uncertainty of a given magnitude is the sum of the uncertainties of each magnitude.
Δm = ∑
Physical quantities are precise values of a variable, but all measurements have an uncertainty, in the case of direct measurements the uncertainty is equal to the precision of the given instrument.
When you have derived variables, that is, when measurements are made with different instruments, each with a different uncertainty, the way to find the uncertainty or error is used the propagation errors to use the variation of each parameter, keeping the others constant and taking the worst of the cases, all the errors add up.
If m is the calculated quantity, x_i the measured values and Δx_i the uncertainty of each value, the total uncertainty is
Δm = ∑ | dm / dx_i | Dx_i
for instance:
If the magnitude is a average of two magnitudes measured each with a different error
m =
Δm = | | Δx₁ + |
| Δx₂
= ½
= ½
Δm = Δx₁ + ½ Δx₂
Δm = Δx₁ + Δx₂
In conclusion, using the propagation errors we can find the uncertainty of a given quantity is the sum of the uncertainties of each measured quantity.
Learn more about propagation errors here: