What is Displacement?
Displacement is defined as the total change in the object’s position along with the direction of motion. Displacement is known to be vector quantity as along with the magnitude of the changed position, the direction of the motion is also taken into account. Displacement can be positive, negative, or zero.
Displacement does not give detailed information on the entire path length, the initial and the final position is required for the calculation of the displacement. Displacement is represented as ‘S’ and an arrow is used to indicate that displacement is a vector quantity. Displacement always has a straight-lined path as the initial and final points are directly connected to find the displacement in the image added below the distance and displacement between points A and B.
Distance and Displacement
Distance and Displacement are two crucial terms of Mechanics that may seem the same but have different meanings and definitions. Distance is a measure of “How much path is covered by an object in motion?” While Displacement is the measure of “How much path is covered by the object in a particular direction?” Hence, the major difference between distance and displacement is that distance is a scalar quantity and displacement is a vector quantity. Despite this difference, both quantities have some similarities. The unit of distance and displacement is meter (m).
In this article, we will learn about Distance Definition in Physics, Displacement Definition in physics, Distance Formula, Displacement Formula, Distance and Displacement Examples, and others in detail.
Table of Content
- What is Distance?
- Distance Formula
- What is Displacement?
- Displacement Formula
- Distance Vs Displacement
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