How is displacement different from distance?

Question

How is displacement different from distance? Under what conditions can an object travel a certain distance and yet its resultant displacement be zero?

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

Displacement is a vector, it has distance and direction.

Distance is a scalar, it just has magnitude.

So if you walk 10 miles north and 10 miles south, the vector sum of those displacements is zero, you wind up back where you started. But the distance walked is 20 miles.

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Answer 2

Displacement is the distance traveled relative to a reference point.  In our case, our reference point will be the starting point.  In physics you just take two snapshots to solve a problem.. one before the event occurs, and the other at the instant that the problem ends.  

So, before the displacement occurs, the object and the reference point are at the same location, let's say, x=-1.  The event begins and whatever is moving moves wherever it moves to.  The distance the object is from the point x=-1 is called the displacement.  

We'll say that the object stopped at x=2.  The displacement is 3.  

But what if the object traveled past 3 and to 7 and then back to three and stopped there?  

The displacement is still 3, but the total distance traveled is 12.  

Answer 3

If i get on abike and ride for 1 mile then back again to my starting point my displacement from my original position  is zero, but my distance travelled is two miles