Question

A farmer moves along the boundary of a square field of side 10 m in 40 s. What will be the magnitude of displacement of the farmer at the end of 2 minutes 20 seconds from his initial position?

Answer 1

The farmer takes 40 s to cover 4 × 10 = 40 m.

In 2 min and 20 s (140 s), he will cover a distance

Therefore, the farmer completes rounds (3 complete rounds and a half round) of the field in 2 min and 20 s.

That means, after 2 min 20 s, the farmer will be at the opposite end of the starting point.

Now, there can be two extreme cases.

Case I: Starting point is a corner point of the field.

In this case, the farmer will be at the diagonally opposite corner of the field after 2 min 20 s.

Therefore, the displacement will be equal to the diagonal of the field.

Hence, the displacement will be

Case II: Starting point is the middle point of any side of the field.

In this case the farmer will be at the middle point of the opposite side of the field after 2 min 20 s.

Therefore, the displacement will be equal to the side of the field, i.e., 10 m.

For any other starting point, the displacement will be between 14.1 m and 10 m.