Question

A person starts walking from $A$ and moves towards east $4$ $\text{m}$. He then turns left and walks $3$ $\text{m}$. Find the distance and magnitude of displacement covered by him respectively.

• A. $7$ $\text{m}$, $7$ $\text{m}$
• B. $7$ $\text{m}$, $5$ $\text{m}$
• C. $5$ $\text{m}$, $5$ $\text{m}$
• D. $7$ $\text{m}$, $0$ $\text{m}$

Answer 1

The correct option is B $7$ $\text{m}$, $5$ $\text{m}$

Looking at the figure
Distance is the total length moved by the person. Here total distance is
$4$$\text{m}$ + $3$ $\text{m}$ = $7$ $\text{m}$
Magnitude of displacement is the shortest distance between initial and final position.
Here displacement is the length of the line joining $A$ and $B$ .
|Displacement| = $\sqrt{4^2+3^2}$ = $5$ $\text{m}$