Where Is It?

Position, distance and displacement

An interactive lesson with 6 steps, about 5 minutes: you predict, drag and solve, with instant feedback on every answer. It runs in your browser and needs JavaScript.

What you’ll learn

• Position is measured from an origin, with a chosen positive direction.
• Displacement is $\Delta x = x_\text{final} - x_\text{initial}$. It has a sign that shows direction.
• Distance is the total ground covered and is never negative.

Steps

1. A ball on a track
2. But where did it end up?
3. Distance vs. displacement
4. Compute a displacement
5. Round trips
6. The elevator