Distance and Displacement Worksheet
Please write all answers on Graph Paper!
For each question plot the path on the grid paper.
You can make each square on graph paper = to 1km
Use Up for North, Down for South, Left for West, and Right for East.
1. Joey drives his car 7 kilometres north. He stops for lunch and then drives 5 kilometres south.
What distance did he cover? What was his displacement?
2. Anthony walks to the pizza place for lunch. He walk 1 km east, then 1 km south and then 1 km
west. What distance did he cover? What was his displacement?
3. On his fishing trip Justin takes the boat 12 km south. The fish aren’t biting so he goes 4 km
back north. He follows a school of fish 1 km further north. What distance did he cover? What
was his displacement?
4. Preston goes on a camel safari in Africa. They he travels 5 km north, then 3 km south and then
1 km north again. What distance did he cover? What was his displacement?
5. Neil walks to his school which is 1km east away from his house. He travels 0.5km east before
he realizes he forgot his backpack and then walks back home to get it. After picking up his bag
he then heads back to school. What distance did he cover? What was his displacement?
6. Alan rents a private jet for the weekend. He flies 400 km south to New York, then 1200 km
south to Miami. What distance did he cover? What was his displacement? (for this problem,
make each square = 100km)
7. Brandon buys a new Seadoo. He goes 12 km north from the beach. He jumps wakes for 6 km
to the east. Then chases a boat 12 km south. He then turns and goes 3 km to the West. What
distance did he cover? What was his displacement?
8. Alex goes cruising on his dirt bike. He rides 700 m north, 300 m east, 400 m north, 600 m
west, 1200 m south 300 m east and finally 100 m north. What distance did he cover? What
was his displacement? (use 1square = 100m)
9. Stephen buys a new moped. He travels 3 km south and then 4 km east, and then 3km north.
How far does he need to go to get back to where he started?
Name__________________________________________ Date__________
Distance vs Displacement Homework:
1
A cross-country skier moves from location A to location B to location C to location D. Each leg
of the back and forth motion takes 1 minute to complete; the total time is 3 minutes.
a.What is the distance travelled by the skier in the first 3 minutes?
b. What is the displacement of the skier in the first 3 minutes?
c. What is the displacement during the second minute?
d. What is the displacement during the third minute?
2. Consider a football coach pacing back and forth along the sidelines. The diagram below
shows several of coach's positions at various times. At each marked position, the coach
makes a "U-turn" and moves in the opposite direction. In other words, the coach moves
from position A to B to C to D.
a) What is the total distance the coach traveled?
b) What is the total displacement of the coach?