displacement

We usually represent a displacement by a single letter, such as A

Displacement is always a straight line segment, directed from the starting point to the end point, even though the actual path of the particle maybe curved In Fig.2.
when the particle moves along the curved path shown from p1 to p2, the displacement is still the vector A.
If the particle were to continue on to p3 and then return to p1, the displacement for the entire trip would be zero. Displacement is not related directly to the total distance traveled.



Fig.2. A displacement is always a straight-line segment.


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