Question

Macy is playing eith her toy train. She is pushing it along on a wood track. The train starts its journey 15 centimeters to the left of the station, travels 95 centimeters to the right of the station, and ends its journey directly in front of the station. if negative values are assigned to positions to the left of the starting position and positive values are assigned to positions to the right of the atsrting position, what is the displacement of the train?
110 cm
15 cm
80 cm
205 cm

Answer 1

To find the displacement of the train, we need to consider the starting position, the ending position, and how displacement is measured.

1. **Starting position:** The train starts 15 centimeters to the left of the station, which means its position is -15 cm relative to the station.
2. **Ending position:** The train ends its journey directly in front of the station, which means its position is 0 cm relative to the station.

Displacement is defined as the change in position. Thus, we can calculate it as:

\[
\text{Displacement} = \text{Final position} - \text{Initial position}
\]

Substituting the values:

\[
\text{Displacement} = 0 \, \text{cm} - (-15 \, \text{cm}) = 0 \, \text{cm} + 15 \, \text{cm} = 15 \, \text{cm}
\]

Therefore, the displacement of the train is **15 cm**.