Explanation:
(a) Displacement of an object is the shortest path covered by it.
In this problem, a student is biking to school. She travels 0.7 km north, then realizes something has fallen out of her bag. She travels 0.3 km south to retrieve her item. She then travels 0.4 mi north to arrive at school.
0.4 miles = 0.64 km
displacement = 0.7-0.3+0.64 = 1.04 km
(b) Average velocity = total displacement/total time
t = 15 min = 0.25 hour
Hence, this is the required solution.