title says it ALL
2006-12-06 22:24:49 · 7 answers · asked by plasmad00d479 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
You cannot tell anything from the information provided other than the total magnitude of all distance vectors covered. The change in distance is still an unknown. Here's why:
In physics there is a vast difference between speed and velocity. Speed is merely a magnitude with no indicator of direction of travel. In other words, your speed may be in a straight line OR it may even be in a circle or curved path (there's an unknown acceleration in your question). Let's say you know the speed is 3 m/s and you're travelling in a circle that is 3 meters in circumference for 42 seconds. You've done 42 rotations, but your displacement (and therefore distance travelled) are still ZERO. Now, if you reword the question to say if you know your VELOCITY and time travelled (because velocity entails knowledge of direction travelled) you could then say that you could find the distance travelled.
2006-12-07 04:55:07 · answer #1 · answered by promethius9594 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can find the distance travelled. It is also possible to find the acceleration. Acceleration is zero if the speed is uniform.
2006-12-07 07:16:42 · answer #2 · answered by Akilesh - Internet Undertaker 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
distance right?
yay i got 2 points!
2006-12-07 06:32:29 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
distance
2006-12-07 06:27:49 · answer #4 · answered by brock_wht 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
distance or displacement
2006-12-07 06:53:03 · answer #5 · answered by arbus 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
distance for sure...
2006-12-07 06:28:37 · answer #6 · answered by Yash 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
ummm.....................................
..........distance??
2006-12-07 06:26:23 · answer #7 · answered by mizbehavingirl 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋