Think that you travel 5km towards east from point A by a vehicle. And from there, you again travel 2km towards west and stop at point B.
From the above diagram you can see that you travelled the distance you travelled is 5km + 2km = 8km. But the displacement is 3km. Distance is easy. Distance is the complete path/journey an object travelled from one point to another. Thus, distance is 8km. You see, your initial position is the position you started. It is point A. the final position of your journey is point B. Displacement is defined as the shortest distance from your initial position (point A) to your final position (point B). Thus, 5km – 2km = 3km.
If you have read our article on pressure, you may have identified the difference of scalar quantities and vector quantities. If you don’t know what are scalars and vectors and haven’t read the article on pressure and still want to continue reading this article, you may first read the article on pressure under the Science menu in the menu bar of our dashboard.
As, if were discussing, distance and displacement go under the two categories. Distance is a scalar quantity because it has only a magnitude but not a direction. Suggest someone tell you to move 5m. you know that you should move 5m but don’t know which direction to move, therefore, distance is a scalar quantity.
Displacement is a vector. It is because it has a magnitude and a direction. Displacement can also be defined as ‘distance with direction’. If we say that a boy travelled east from a point to another point, and the displacement is 3km. Now find the displacement of the boy. We must represent displacement in meters because it is the SI unit and displacement = 3km east. Now let’s say a boy was in point A in the house and then travels to many places of the house and come back to the Point A. the distance may be an any amount but not zero. The displacement = 0metres.
Those are the introductions, definitions, and examples for the terms called distance and displacement. But we haven't put the formulas for calculating the above terms. Read the article on speed, velocity and time. In that article, we have put the formulas. Then you can identify and calculate it. The lesson is over and thank you for reading.