Question
What is the difference between ‘distance travelled’ by a body and its ‘displacement’? Explain with the help of a diagram.
Distance | Displacement | |
1. | distance has only magnitude, with no specified direction. | Diplacement has magnitude as well as direction. |
2. | It is a scalar quantity. | It is vector quantity. |
3. | Two different distance can be added directly. | We have to follow the vector addition method to add displacements. |
One difference in digramatic form is as follows:

Here the curved line is the distance traveled and the straight line is the magnitude of the displacement.
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