In science, motion is

defined as the change in position

for a particular time interval. You
can then start describing motion
with the question, How far did
the object travel? There are
actually two ways to answer this
question. First is by getting the
total length of the path travelled
by the object. In Figure 5 for
example, the dog ran 10m to the east, then 5m to the south, and another
10m to the west. So it has travelled a total of 25 meters. The other way is by
measuring the distance between the initial position and final position of the
object. Based again on Figure 5, the dog has travelled 5 meters to the south.
In science, the first measurement gives the distance travelled by the
object (represented by broken lines) while the second measurement gives its
displacement (represented by continuous line).
Here are more illustrations showing the difference between distance
travelled (represented by broken lines) by an object and its displacement
(represented by continuous lines).
Can you give one difference between distance and displacement based
on the given examples? When can displacement be equal to zero? Is it
possible to get zero displacement? What if the ball, the car, and the dog in
the illustration go back to their starting positions, what will happen to their
respective distances? How about their displacements? If you answered these
questions correctly, then you have most probably understood the difference
between distance and displacement.
Distance refers to the length of the entire path that the object
travelled.
Displacement refers to the shortest distance between the objects two
positions, like the distance between its point of origin and its point of
destination, no matter what path it took to get to that destination.

When a graph is plotted in terms of the distance travelled by the

object and the time it took to cover such distance, the graph can be called
distance-time graph. If the graph is plotted in terms of displacement and
time, it is called displacement-time graph. Refer to the graph in Figure 7.
What is the displacement of the object after 2 seconds? What is its
displacement after 6 seconds? How will you describe the motion of the object
between 0s and 2s, between 2s and 4s, and between 4s and 6s?