Difference Between Distance and displacement
When we move from one place to another, the measure of the total length that we cover is called distance.
Distance Meaning
substantive distance the amount of space between two points usually geographic points usually but not necessarily measured along a straight line the distance to Peters Township as 30 miles substantive distance length or time interval substantive distance remoteness from place a remote location substantive distance remoteness in succession or relationship the distance between a descendant and his ancestor substantive distance a space delimited in the last part of a racecourse substantive distance the distance or reserve whose respect therefore requires respect ceremonial nests distance verb moving away from someone or something distanced from the comments made by some of his colleagues distance verb leave at a distance leave behind leave the reference behind
So you have to travel to this city and the best route is north. But due to road works on the way, we have to take a detour and the distance traveled would be something like this.
Now, when the road works are finished, the necessary distance to cover would be something like this. Distance is measured in meters and is indicated by a lowercase "m". The distance between these two towns is about twenty thousand meters, but due to the detour, a distance of fifty thousand meters had to be covered.
so no one likes big numbers, unless it's your salary. So we must also know that a kilometer is a thousand meters.
In our example, we can say that instead of 20 kilometers, he traveled 50 kilometers. Is distance a scalar or vector quantity? Think about it ...
If you say someone traveled 20 km from this point, we can't really tell where they landed. Maybe here, maybe there, or maybe they just went around in circles. Since it does NOT specify an address, it is a SCALAR quantity.
That brings us to displacement. So what is displacement? "Distance to DIRECTION" is the offset. Distance to direction? What do we mean by that? You made two separate trips to this city. Was the distance traveled in both cases the same? Look closely. It was not.
In each of the two cases the distance was different. The time it took for the detour was greater than the time it could cross in a straight line. But if you call someone to tell them where you are, in both cases your location is this city, which is 20 km north of your house.
The displacement in both cases is the same. You traveled 20 kms north. North shows the direction, and as the direction is specified, the offset becomes a VECTOR AMOUNT.
Look at this example where a mother asks her son to stay quietly where he is while she takes a quick nap ... so now the child runs back and forth many times and returns to the original place before the mother wake up. Mom wakes up and sees the child in the same place and since she has not observed what happened in the last few minutes, she assumes that the child has not moved.
The child, being the future physics expert, has in fact disobeyed her instructions and traveled many distances ... but at the same time she can argue that she did follow her mother's instructions. Long distance covered but ZERO travel!
If the distance traveled is a straight line, the displacement will be of the same magnitude as the distance but also with the given direction. In MOST of our day-to-day cases,
The distance traveled is greater than the displacement seen. Running errands and traveling from place to place adds to the distance, although it may not end very far from home. If you have really understood the difference between distance and offset, you should be able to answer the following question. When a passenger travels by taxi, are they charged based on distance or travel?
Taxis charge passengers according to DISTANCE. If you go to the neighboring town and return in the same taxi, the meter shows you the cost of the entire round trip.
If you now try to explain to the taxi driver that you have not had any resulting change in your location and therefore do not have to pay anything, you will not be very impressed.
Displacement Meaning
The act of displacing or the state of being displaced putting out of place the amount of anything such as water displaced by a floating body has bio ship the weight of the displaced liquid is equal to that of the displaced body the process of extraction of soluble substances from organic material and the like whereby an amount of saturated solvent is displaced or removed by another amount of solvent.
