Kinematic Concepts - Mission KC2 Detailed Help

For any given motion, displacement is ____.

 
Definition of Displacement:
The displacement of a moving object is the overall change in position of the object.

 
Displacement is a vector quantity which is always conscious of the direction of motion and any changes in that direction. Suppose that a person walks 12 meters, east and then 4 meters, west. The displacement of the object is 8 meters, east. The fact that there is a direction change must be considered when measuring the displacement.

Displacement must account for the fact that the 4 meter segment of the motion was in the opposite direction of the 12 meters. For the displacement measurement, the 4 meters is considered as a negative (a directional adjective) and added onto the +12 meters.