Question

Mark and Sofia walk together down a long, straight road. They walk without stopping for 4 miles. At this point Sofia says their displacement during the trip must have been 4 miles; Mark says their current position must be 4 miles.

1. Who, if either, is correct?a) Markb) Mark, only if their starting point is the origin of a coordinate systemc) Sofia, only if their starting point is the origin of a coordinate systemd) Sofia

Answer 1

b

Explanation:

Displacement and distance have different meanings. Displacement is a vector quantity and is the objects overall change in position. Distance is scalar quantity which describes how much ground an object covers during motion.

If they have covered 4 miles from a origin and we don't know the origin but we know that they start there and continue for 4 miles. It will be displacement if they started at a distance and walked a certain distance and the difference from start to finish is 4 miles. Therefore, it must be distance because we don't know the initial position and only that they walked 4 miles.

Mark is right if their starting point is a origin of a coordinate system