Nicole parks her car at Target and walks 150 ft north to get to the store. On her way back to her car, she walks 50 ft before pausing when she sees a sign for discounted iced coffee at Starbucks. Find her distance and displacement.

First point is to remember the difference between distance and displacement. Distance is a scalar quantity. Which means it has a magnitude and unit but no direction. For example 15 kilometer is a distance which has magnitude of 15 and unit is kilometer. But displacement is a vector quantity, which means, it comprises of magnitude, unit as well as direction. For example 15 kilometer in north is a displacement which has magnitude of 15, unit is kilometer and direction towards north.

Notice that displacement is the shortest distance between two points as it is straight line, hence have a direction as well. (straight line is direction itself)

Now, in given question, you can see that Nicole first walked 150 ft and returned on same route for 50 ft, so for total, she covered distance

distance = 150 + 50

distance = 200 ft.

But when she returned, she was 100 ft far from the point she started. As I stated earlier, displacement is the shortest distance between two points. So

Displacement = 150 - 50

Displacement = 100 ft.