Question

Jason rides his bicycle 1,200 meters east to the grocery store. He then turns around and travels 760 meters west to meet his friend. What are his total distance and his displacement?

Answer 1

Since displacement is a vector quantity, it depends on direction as well as magnitude.

Taking displacement towards east as positive and towards west as negative,
Total displacement = 1200 + (-760) = 440 meters. 

Since distance is a scalar quantity, it depends only upon magnitude.
Total distance = 1200 + 760 = 1960 meters. 

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