Finding magnitude of displacement vector

[ilovedeathcab]

[solved] finding magnitude of displacement vector

Silas crawls 1.5 meters due East then crawls 3.2 meters due South. Find the magnitude of the net displacement vector. Make sure you do the following in your answer:

* include correct units
* make your answer correct within 0.02
* make your answer positive (because magnitudes are always considered positive)
* put your answer in a form like one of these:
o #.$m o #.$ meters

The question is worth one point, and there is a half point penalty for each incorrect submission.
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i got a resultant vector of 3.534m but that was using pythagorean theorem (1.5squared+3.2squared)= 12.49---> square root 12.49=3.53 but i don't know what it means by magnitude...am i doing it right?

 

[McCoy13]

Magnitude just means size. It is exactly what you calculated.

 

[baba89]

Yes, you are correct in using the Pythagorean theorem to find the magnitude of the displacement vector. The magnitude of a vector is its size or length, and it is always positive. In this case, the magnitude of the displacement vector would be 3.53 meters, as you have calculated. Remember to include the correct units in your answer, so it would be written as 3.53 meters. Good job!