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Displacement in physics

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Anonymous

14y ago
Updated: 8/16/2019

Displacement in physics can have multiple meanings dependent on the situation. If you are talking about the universal equations of motion or anything moving then displacement means how far something has 'literally' traveled.

It differs from distance because if you where to start somewhere and then run around in a circle you would end in the same place and so your distance traveled would be 0. This would make it hard to find out how much energy you have expended because you technically haven't moved anywhere if you only look at distance.

This is where displacement comes in, regardless of where you finish your displacement will be the same whether you run a mile in a Circle and finish in the same place or run a mile in a straight line.

Now if you are talking about fluids then displacement will mean the amount of water displaced by an object in a fluid. This can be used to calculate the upward thrust of the fluid on the object.

Alternatively, you could simply say that displacement is the distance moved in a particular direction and that it is a vector quantity (gives us both magnitude and direction).

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14y ago

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