Scalars and Vectors, One Step at a Time

You'll learnto tell distance from displacement, and speed from velocity, on a single trip.

A walk out, a walk back, and the two numbers that describe it — one that remembers direction, and one that never does. Watch the odometer and the position disagree, then make the distinction pay.

FORMAT DEMO · 8 STEPS · 6 QUICK CHECKS · v6

NUMBER LINE LAB

Before you start

What you're looking at

A walker on a number line who starts at the origin, walks 40 m in the +x direction, turns, and heads back.

The question

For that out-and-back trip, what is the distance traveled and what is the displacement?

Watch for

Watch the odometer and the position readout climb together going out, then disagree on the way back.

What the symbols mean

The +x arrow sets positive direction; dashed markers show the turn and end points; green is the outbound vector.

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