Four Questions That Sound Alike

You'll learnto tell a motion problem's four questions apart by the shape of their answers before any calculus happens, to keep the displacement separate from the position and the distance traveled separate from both, and to read a speed off a velocity vector rather than off an acceleration.

A motion problem asks four questions in almost the same words, and three of them are separated before any calculus happens, by the shape of the answer. Where is it and how far did it move are pairs of numbers. How far did it travel and how fast is it going are single numbers. Twelve short steps; press Next for each one.

12 STEPS · 6 QUICK CHECKS · TWO OF THE FOUR ANSWERS ARE VECTORS · v2

traveled is the length of the path · moved is the length of the arrow

Before you start

What you're looking at

One plane at equal scale, so a length on screen is a length in the problem. A particle walks a curved path; a ring marks the start, a dot is where it is now.

The question

Four things can be asked about this motion. Which of them need two numbers, and which need only one?

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