Question

Can velocity be positive with a negative displacement? Explain please :)

Answer 1

Yes see explanation

Explanation:

There are two types of quantities, and it is important to know the difference;

1) Scalar quantities. These have magnitude ie. size only .
For example: temperature.

2) Vector quantities, these have BOTH size and direction.

to show the difference:

Consider an object moving North `5ms^(-1)`

its speed is `5 ms^(-1)` and is a scalar

but its velocity of `5ms^(-1)` North is a vector.

Now distance is as scalar, but displacement is a vector

so if an object starts at the origin and moves# " "5 m" " # in the `+x-`axis then`" " 10 m " "`in the opposite direction, it ends up at`" " -5m " "`from the origin.

it has moved a distance of `" "15m" "`

but its displacement is `" "-5m." "`

if we use vector notation:

the object goes:`" "5veci-10veci=-5veci`

So displacement can be negative.

at this point the object can move with a velocity of, say, `" "2veci ms^(-1)`
so an object can have positive velocity and negative displacement

In fact the constant acceleration equations can be written into vector form, thus taking all of this into account.