Ant climb up 5 stairs, each of length 20 cm and height 20 cm . Find the distance covered and displacement covered by ant ?

Answer 1

Part 1: Distance

=> When we talk about distance, we consider the length of the total path travelled. This means, we add up every time the ant goes up 20cm, and crosses the length of 20cm.

Since the distance travelled per stair is 40cm (20cm + 20cm), and there are a total of 5 stairs, the total distance travelled is 200cm (40cm x 5).

Part 2: Displacement

=> When we talk about displacement, we only consider the direct distance (the shortest path) from the start position to the end position.

So, we need to find the distance of the one straight line from the bottom of the first step to the top of the fifth. Consider the following triangle representing one step:

/|
/ |
/ | 20cm
/___|
20cm

Using the pythagorean theorum, the length of the hypotenuse (the direct line from start to finish for one stair) is the root of 800 (20^2 + 20^2), which comes out to be 20√2

Since there are five stairs, the total displacement is given by multiplying this number by 5, which gives up 100√2 cm.

=> As you will observe, the displacement is less than the distance.

Answer 2

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