Advertisements
Advertisements
Question
Give two differences between displacement and distance.
Advertisements
Solution
Differences between displacement and distance.
Distance:
- It is a scalar quantity.
- Distance travelled is always positive.
- The distance travelled by a moving body is the actual length of path.
- Distance travelled is always greater than or equal to the displacement.

Displacement:
- It is a vector quantity.
- Displacement may be positive negative or zero.
- The displacement of a body is the shortest distance between the initial and final positions of the body.
- Displacement is always less than or equal to the distance travelled.
Displacement is zero
APPEARS IN
RELATED QUESTIONS
An athlete completes one round of a circular track of diameter 200 m in 40 s. What will be the distance covered and the displacement at the end of 2 minutes 20 s?
The displacement of a moving object in a given interval of time is zero. Would the distance travelled by the object also be zero ? Give reason for your answer.
What can you say about the nature of motion of a body if its displacement-time graph is A curve.
Figure shows the velocity-time graph of a particle moving in a straight line.

(i) State the nature of motion of particle.
(ii) Find the displacement of particle at t = 6 s.
(iii) Does the particle change its direction of motion?
(iv) Compare the distance travelled by the particle from 0 to 4 s and from 4 s to 6 s.
(v) Find the acceleration from 0 to 4 s and retardation from 4 s to 6 s.
Can distance covered by a body be less than the magnitude of its displacement?
Show the difference between distance and displacement with the help of a diagram.
The table below shows the distance travelled by two vehicles A and B during each second:
| Time (s) | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Distance travelled by A (m) | 0 | 20 | 80 | 180 | 240 | 300 | 360 | 420 |
| Distance travelled by B (m) | 0 | 10 | 40 | 90 | 160 | 250 | 360 | 490 |
Which vehicle is ahead at the end of 7th second and by how much?
Which of the following figures represent uniform motion of a moving object correctly?
Distinguish distance and displacement.
Which of the following is correct?
