Displacement

Kdawg

I have to displacment problems that i cant get right.

While John is traveling along a straight interstate highway, he notices that the mile marker reads 233. John travels until he reaches the 155-mile marker and then retraces his path to the 172-mile marker. What is John's resultant displacement from the 233-mile marker?
I thought the answer for this one would be 61 but it is marked wrong.

Bob walks 57 m and then he walks 125 m. What is Bob's displacement if he walks east then west?
I thought the answer for this one would be 68 but it is marked wrong.

CinderBlockFist

For the second problem, Try negative -68, cause he goes past the origin, to the negative side. Also, the first answer may be negative also, not sure though.

Kdawg

Thanks, that was it. for some reason I was thinking displacement couldnt be negative.

antiflag403

displacement is a vector quantity. all vector quantities are affected by direction. therefore all vector quantities should be labeled with a direction (wether it be shown with a positive/negative sign, bearing on a compass,etc)

recon

Both answers would have been correct had you included the negative sign for both.