Anyway, this week, we continued to focus on motion. However, we definitely got more in-depth on different parts, especially this new term called displacement.
Displacement is the change in position, but it is NOT I repeat NOT distance, however close the two words may sound. I mean really, why start them both with the letter D? That just makes things more confusing for everyone. To explain, I should probably review the words that could possibly confuse me more and show how they are different.
The Differences
1. Distance
- Distance is the total amount traveled. For example, if you walk 9 steps to the right, 3 steps back, and 1 step left, your distance is equal to 13 steps.
- Distance compares two (or more) locations. For example, if you travel from point A to point B, your distance is the length between the two.
2. Position
- Position is the point you are at at one point in time.
- To find your position, you use your reference point.
- There is only one way you can get to the position that someone else is in right now.
- Position deals with direction.
- Position can be negative or positive depending on the direction relative to the reference point.
- Position is a single point, like Point A.
- To sum it up, position is the distance from a reference point (with direction) at one point in time.
3. Displacement
- Displacement is the change in position.
- Displacement has direction associated with it.
- It can be negative or positive.
- Displacement is where you end up relative to your starting point. For example, if you go on a long journey, the only thing that matters for displacement is where you end up and how far that end point is from where you started.
- In another sense, if you start from point A, then walk to point B, then walk to point C, displacement is only how far you are from point A to point C.
- Displacement uses the starting point, not the reference point.
- To sum it up, displacement is the change in position relative to the starting point, not the reference point.
Putting Things Together
So now that you know that these three terms are obviously different, let's relate them to something else... like... Speed and Velocity!
As a class, we deduced that displacement seems to go more with velocity, while distance goes with speed.
Speed= Distance/time
Velocity= speed with direction= Distance/time with direction= Displacement/time
Reflection
I realize that this blog is kind of a mess, but that's a little like how I feel right now. Missing today definitely didn't help, but it couldn't be helped. I'm still pretty confused, although a little less so, and I hope that my understanding will increase next week. However, I will have to take my fiesta next week, and I am a little worried. I guess all I can do is try.
Hey lisette, I love how you put little definitions for each term and kind of gave an example for each, but here are a couple of things you might want to add... Distance is never negative and will never use anything negative (think absolute values), maybe you could explain bulletpoint 3 on the velocity a little more. It kin of confused me a little bit. Finally, that last line in bold above the reflections was a little confusing, maybe seperate them a little bit. Other than that, the blog isn't a mess and is quite helpful.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jeff! I'll do some editing to make it less confusing. Like I said in my blog, I was kinda confused at that point. I knew that I had already learned all this stuff, but I couldn't remember any of it, so I was actually quite frustrated while writing this post. I'm glad my posts help though. I'll try to fix it a little.
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