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Physics vocabulary · Motion and Forces

Displacement

Meaning in physics, with examples

/dɪsˈpleɪsmənt/nounCore term

In physics, displacement means: The straight-line distance from an object's starting point to its final position, together with its direction. It is a vector, measured in metres.

In Turkish: yer değiştirme

How it is used

Used in kinematics with the symbol s or Δx. Distance is how far you actually travel; displacement only cares about the start and end points. A runner who completes one lap of a 400 m track has a displacement of zero.

Example sentences

  1. The hiker walked 3 km north and then 4 km east, so her displacement is 5 km at about 53° east of north.

  2. Displacement can be negative if the object ends up behind its starting point.

Common collocations

  • displacement vector
  • angular displacement
  • displacement-time graph
  • net displacement
  • velocityHow fast an object moves in a particular direction. It is speed with a direction, so it is a vector, measured in metres per second (m/s).
  • speedHow fast an object is moving, found by dividing the distance travelled by the time taken. It has no direction, so it is a scalar, measured in metres per second (m/s).
  • vectorA quantity that has both a size (magnitude) and a direction, such as displacement, velocity, force or acceleration. It is often drawn as an arrow.
  • scalarA quantity that has size (magnitude) but no direction, such as mass, time, temperature, energy or speed. Scalars are added like ordinary numbers.
  • workThe energy transferred when a force moves an object through a distance in the direction of the force. It equals force times displacement and is measured in joules (J).

More terms: Motion and Forces

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