Question

A school bus leaves and head north for 2miles befor making its first stop. It then turns left and heads north for 3 miles before making another stop. Find the distance and displacement of the school bus after completing its first two stops

Answer 1

Answer: distance: 5 miles, displacement: 3.6 miles

Explanation: The distance is simply the total length of the path covered by the bus. Therefore, it can be calculated by adding the length of the two paths, regardless of their directions:

d = 2 + 3 = 5 miles

The displacement, instead, is the distance in a straight line between the final position and the starting position. Since the two motions of the bus are perpendicular to each other, the displacement can be found by using Pythagorean's theorem:

so, 3.6 miles. Moreover, displacement is a vector, so we can find its direction also:

and the direction is north of east.