How do you calculate displacement? Example, a student walked 2.0 m (E) then 5.0 m (W), what is the total displacement of the student?
1 Answer
Another explanation.
When dealing with opposite directions, we can consider one direction to be positive, and the opposite direction to be negative. When dealing with opposite directions, north, east, and right are usually considered to be positive; and south, west, and left are usually considered negative.
Displacement is change in position relative to a reference point. So let's say the student started at his house.
His displacement east is +2.0 m, and his displacement west is -5.0 m. The total displacement is the vector sum of the displacements:
So the total displacement of the student is 3 meters west.
If you are dealing with perpendicular directions, such as west and north, you would use right triangle trigonometry. The magnitude of the displacement is the hypotenuse, and the direction is the angle
