Motion | Distance, Displacement, Scalars and Vectors.

Have you ever been on a road trip? Have you ever planned one? Well, if you have or haven't, the basic criteria is to stop at different places and get there in the shortest amount of time. You want to spend the least amount of time as you can traveling on highways and the most time doing fun activities. You also would know road trips cover a lot of distance. But what if you could just cut in a straight line to your destination. That would make for a much shorter traveling time. That is called displacement. Displacement is one of the many vector quantities A vector quantity is a quantity that has both a magnitude and a direction. A displacement is the shortest way to get from point a to point b. A direct, straight line that gets you there in the shortest distance. It has both the distance traveled and the direction in which it is traveling. This is different than distance. Distance is a Scalar quantity. A scalar quantity is a magnitude. It has no direction. It is like if I said, that car is slow, or that mouse is small. Distance and displacement are two common things used to define how far something is traveling and what is the shortest route. But how do you decide if an object is moving anyway? Well, you compare it to a reference point. A reference point is an object that you can use to describe a objects position. Like, that person is 5 feet away from the light post, where the light post is the reference point. Your positions, and whether you are moving or not, depends on your reference point. If your reference point is moving, the distance can be growing or getting smaller, so it is easier to choose a still reference point when wanting to figure out an object's position. So next time you go on a road trip, just remember, there more science in life than you think.

S&EP
SP: Using Mathematics

Distance and Displacement require mathematics. To figure out distance, you need to add up all of the different measurements to get the overall distance that the object has traveled. For displacement, the easiest thing to do is using the Pythagorean theorem. The Pythagorean theorem states that in a right triangle, a squared plus b squared must equal c squared, where c is the hypotenuse. To figure out displacement, just draw a rectangle where point a is opposite point b. Then draw a line through the middle that connects both lines. Then use the Pythagorean theorem to solve for the hypotenuse. The hypotenuse will equal the displacement of your object. But don't forget to add the direction in which your line is moving, this is because displacement is a vector, so it has both magnitude and direction.

XCC
XCC: Scale, Proportion, and Quantity

Vector and Scalar quantities are used in all kinds of scales. They can be used to figure out small or large things in motion. They help scientists to figure out many different things from Temperature to acceleration. They can be used in simple things like, "My dog runs fast." or "Its 78 degrees outside today" or in more complex ways like, "The car accelerates by 5 miles per hour every time it turns right, and 6 miles per hour every time it turns left." Vector and Scalar quantities help scientist figure out things on all different types of scales. This shows us just how much science is used in our lives and how it affects and changes us.