Question

A person drives north 8 blocks, then turns west and drives 4 blocks. The driver then turns south and drives 8 blocks. How could the driver have made the distance shorter while maintaining the same displacement? *

Answer 1

A person would be driving 4 blocks west from the starting point to make the shorter distance while maintaining same displacement.

Explanation:

The measurement of an object’s position change from its point is called displacement. It is usually calculated from starting to the end points and represented by ‘delta s’. In the given scenarios, the person drove in the way that he finals the driving by 4 blocks away from the west.

Means, the persons drive to 8 blocks north and then to 8 blocks south get cancelled. Hence, to make the shorter distance with maintaining same displacement he would be driving 4 blocks west from the starting point.