Question

(4) sandra drives her car 45 km to the west, turns around and then drives 110 m to the east. what is the distance that sandra drove and what is her displacement? distance = __________ displacement = __________

Explanation:

Step1: Convert units to be consistent

First, convert \( 45 \, \text{km} \) to meters. Since \( 1 \, \text{km} = 1000 \, \text{m} \), we have \( 45 \times 1000 = 45000 \, \text{m} \).

Step2: Calculate total distance

Distance is the total path length. So we add the distance west and east:
\( \text{Distance} = 45000 \, \text{m} + 110 \, \text{m} = 450110 \, \text{m} \) (or \( 45.011 \, \text{km} \)).

Step3: Define direction for displacement

Let west be the positive direction (we can choose east as negative, but west is more intuitive here). The displacement is the net change in position.
Displacement (in meters) = Distance west - Distance east (since east is opposite to west).
\( \text{Displacement} = 45000 \, \text{m} - 110 \, \text{m} = 44890 \, \text{m} \) west.
(Or in km: \( 45 \, \text{km} - 0.11 \, \text{km} = 44.89 \, \text{km} \) west.)

Answer:

Distance = \( 450110 \, \text{m} \) (or \( 45.011 \, \text{km} \))
Displacement = \( 44890 \, \text{m} \) west (or \( 44.89 \, \text{km} \) west)