Question

distance vs. displacement
as an object moves, its location undergoes change. there are two quantities to describe the changing location. one quantity - distance - accumulates the amount of total change of location over the course of a motion. distance is the amount of ground that is covered. the second quantity - displacement - only concerns itself with the initial and final position of the object. displacement is the overall change in position of the object from start to finish and does not concern itself with the accumulation of distance traveled during the path from start to finish.

1. true or false: an object can be moving for 10 seconds and still have zero displacement.

a. true
b. false

1. if the above statement is true, then describe an example of such a motion. if the above statement is false, then explain why it is false.
2. suppose that you run along three different paths from location a to location b. along which path(s) would your distance traveled be different from your displacement?

Explanation:

Step1: Recall displacement concept

Displacement is the overall change in position from start - to - finish.

Step2: Consider circular motion example

If an object moves in a circle and returns to the starting point after 10 seconds, it has been moving but displacement is zero as initial and final positions are the same.

Answer:

a. True
For question 5, an example is an object moving in a circular path. It moves for some time but when it comes back to the starting point, displacement is zero while it has been in motion.
For question 6, if the path is not a straight - line (i.e., any curved path), the distance traveled will be different from the displacement. Distance is the total length of the path covered and displacement is the straight - line distance from the starting point to the ending point. So, for non - straight paths (curved paths) between location A and location B, distance and displacement are different.