Question

(1)- A person walks along the sides of a square field.

Each side is 100 m long. What is the maximum magnitude of displacement of the person in any time interval

(2)- A car moves 100 m due east and then 25 m due west.

(a) What is the distance covered by the car? (b) what is its displacement?

Answer 1

1)
The maximum displacement is the diagonal of the square field.

side of square = 100m
diagonal = √100² + 100² = √20000 = 100√2 m = 141.42m

So maximum displacement is 141.42m.

2)
a) Distance is the total path covered by the object.hence distance travelled=100+25=125m

b) Displacement is the shortest path between source and destination.Car moves 100m forward(east) and then 25m backward(west)so displacement =100-25=75m