What is the difference between distance and displacement?
Let us have an object that starts at an origin point O and ends at some finishing point F. Distance is the total length of the path taken by the object between O and F, this is also known from our everyday lives. Displacement is also a measure of distance but is subtlety different. Displacement is the direct distance between the starting and finishing point of an object, that is if you were to draw a straight line between O and F the objects displacement would be the length of said straight line
GM
Related Physics A Level answers
All answers ▸Imagine a ball rolls off a set of stairs with horizontal velocity, u; the stairs have a height, h and length of l. Find a formula for which step the ball will hit, n.
On a speed/time graph: a) how would a constant deceleration be illustrated? b) how would you use the graph to calculate total distance travelled?
An alpha particle is accelerated with 5MeV of kinetic energy towards the nucleus of a gold atom with atomic number 79. What is the distance of closest approach that is reached by the alpha particle?
A passenger is standing in a train. The train accelerates and the passenger falls backwards. Use Newton's first law of motion to explain why he fell backwards.