A man walks a distance of 3km due east, then another 4km due south. What is the displacement relative to his starting point?

1 Answer
Jun 19, 2018

Because East and South are at right angles to each other, we can use the distance formula:

d = sqrt((3" km")^2+(4" km")^2)d=(3 km)2+(4 km)2

d = sqrt(9" km"^2+ 16" km"^2)d=9 km2+16 km2

d = sqrt(25" km"^2)d=25 km2

d = 5" km"d=5 km