Meg walks 5 blocks south and then turns around and walks 8 blocks back to the north. The distance that she walks is 13 blocks. What is her displacement?

Question

All the questions come from off of Apex.

Answer 1

displacement would be 3 units (magnitude) to the North (direction).

Remember that displacement is a vector quantity so you need to represent it with both a magnitude and a direction. Since you initially go 5 units south, then 8 units in the opposite direction (north), your net would be +8-5=+3 unit which is your magnitude and the direction is to the north.

Hope that helps