Which scenario shows distance and displacement being different?

• A. Walking in a circle and ending at the starting point
• B. Walking straight from A to B by 5 m
• C. Running 5 km east and stopping
• D. A car traveling 100 m

Answer: (A)

Distance is the total length you travel, while displacement is the straight-line distance from where you started to where you ended, with a direction.

In the circle scenario, you begin at a point and end up back there after a full loop. The distance traveled is the circumference of the circle (some nonzero length), but the displacement is zero because your final position is the same as your starting position. That’s why distance and displacement differ here.

In the other scenarios, the path ends at a point directly along the straight line from the start, so the distance traveled equals the straight-line displacement: 5 m in a straight shot from A to B, 5 km east ending 5 km from the start, and 100 m along a straight path ending 100 m away in that direction. Hence the two measures are the same in those cases.