Question

A field hockey player runs X m forward and then straight back Y m during a game. If we consider forward to be positive her displacement is_____ m and the distance travelled is ___ m.

Answer 1

Let's use a diagram:

We can find the displacement as:

$\begin{gathered} \Delta x=_{\text{ }}xf-xi \\ _{\text{ }}where\colon \\ xi=X \\ xf=Y \\ \Delta x=Y-X \end{gathered}$

And the distance is given by:

$\begin{gathered} d=xi+xf \\ d=X+Y \end{gathered}$