Question

A flea walking along a ruler moves from the 45 cm mark to the 27 cm mark.What is the displacement? (Define increasing numbers to be the positive direction and decreasing numbers to be the negative direction.)

Answer 1

Answer on Question #84964, Physics / Classical Mechanics

A flea walking along a ruler moves from the $x_i = 45$ cm mark to the $x_f = 27$ cm mark. What is the displacement? (Define increasing numbers to be the positive direction and decreasing numbers to be the negative direction.).

Solution:

The displacement

$$\begin{array}{l} s_x = x_f - x_i \\ = 27 \text{ cm} - 45 \text{ cm} = -18 \text{ cm} \end{array}$$

Answer: $s_x = -18$ cm