Displacement

Distance and displacement are different. When you traveled 50 km to the East and then 20 km to the West, the total distance you traveled is 70 km, but your displacement is 30 km East. I

In physics, distance is a scalar and displacement is a vector.

Here is a good animation showing the difference between displacement and distance. http://hypertextbook.com/physics/mechanics/displacement/desk-animated.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/10796/ch2/ch2.htm http://hypertextbook.com/physics/mechanics/displacement/ http://www.physics.gatech.edu/academics/classes/2211/main/demos/displacement/DDis.html

-Sam