Question
Displacement or distance?
How far an object has traveled.
How far an object has traveled.
Answers
GPT-4o mini
The term "distance" refers to how far an object has traveled, regardless of its starting or ending point. It is a scalar quantity, meaning it only has magnitude and no direction.
On the other hand, "displacement" refers to the change in position of an object and is a vector quantity, which means it has both magnitude and direction. Displacement is defined as the straight line from the starting point to the ending point, along with the direction.
So, if you are simply asking how far an object has traveled, the correct term to use would be **distance**.
On the other hand, "displacement" refers to the change in position of an object and is a vector quantity, which means it has both magnitude and direction. Displacement is defined as the straight line from the starting point to the ending point, along with the direction.
So, if you are simply asking how far an object has traveled, the correct term to use would be **distance**.