What is difference between distance and displacement?

Answer 1

Distance is a scalar quantity; it only gives you the value.

Displacement is a vector quantity; it gives you the value and the direction.

Example of distance - point A is 40m from point C

Example of displacement - Point A is 40m from Point C, in a western direction.

Answer 2

Distance is the actual length traveled regardless of direction, while displacement is the change in position from the initial point to the final point in a straight line. Distance is a scalar quantity, whereas displacement is a vector quantity that includes both magnitude and direction.

Answer 3

"Distance is a scalar measure of meters, and displacement is a vector measure of meters. Vectors have a direction and scalars do not. Distance is meters moved, displacement is meters moved in a specific direction."

While displacement is a directed distance, that is not the key difference between the two terms.

Displacement is the difference between the final position and the initial position, while distance is the length of the path connecting the two. The magnitude of displacement is the shortest distance between the final and initial positions.

Example: If you walked from the southern end of your room to the northern end a total of 4 meters along a straight line, your displacement would have been +4 meters (assuming you define "north" as the positive direction). The distance you would have traveled happens to be numerically the same (4 meters). In contrast, had you walked from the southern end to the northern end not along a straight line, but along a zig-zag path, your displacement still would have been +4 meters, but the distance you traveled would have been more than 4 meters.

Moreover, if after walking from the southern end to the northern end along that straight line, you then turned around and returned to the southern end via that same straight line, the distance you would have traveled would have been twice as much (8 meters), but your total displacement would have been zero.

Answer 4

Distance is the length covered. But displacement is the distance between initial and final positions

Distance is a scalar quantity But displacement is a vector

In case of a body completing one round in a circular path, then the distance is 2 pi r

But the displacement is zero.

Answer 5

Displacement is a form of distance but unlike distance it is a vector. It has both measure and direction. If I moved 10 meters east then the distance I moved would be 10 m but my displacement would be 10m East as vectors must have a direction to make sense.
The distance you traveled is how far you moved, while displacement is how far from the starting point you end up.

For example, you get in your car and drive two miles north, then turn around and drive five miles south. The distance you travelled is 7 miles, but your displacement is three miles because that's how far you are from your starting point.