A hot air balloon pilot raises a balloon 200 m from the ground, turns off the burner and allows the balloon to decend 60 m before turning the burner on again to raise it another 170 m.
A. use +/- values to determine the total distance the balloon travelled.
B. use absolute values to determine the total vertical distance travelled by the balloon.
6 years ago
Answered By Kazi A
The difference between questions A and B is that A is asking for a NET distance (the correct word is 'displacement'), which is simply how far the balloon ended up from its starting point, and the second question is asking for the distance travelled.
For example, if you walked 1m forward, and then 1m backward, so that you are back where you started, the net distance (displacement) is 0, but distance travelled is 2m. Mathematically, you say you moved by 1m, then -1m, so displacement = 1 + (-1) = 0. For distances, you simply take the absolute value (i.e, ignore any negative signs) of each term and add them up, i.e, |1| + |-1| = 1 + 1 = 2.
Just apply the same logic to your question, taking upward movement as positive distances, and downward movement as negative distances, to calculate the answers.
6 years ago
Answered By Kazi A
The difference between questions A and B is that A is asking for a NET distance (the correct word is 'displacement'), which is simply how far the balloon ended up from its starting point, and the second question is asking for the distance travelled.
For example, if you walked 1m forward, and then 1m backward, so that you are back where you started, the net distance (displacement) is 0, but distance travelled is 2m. Mathematically, you say you moved by 1m, then -1m, so displacement = 1 + (-1) = 0. For distances, you simply take the absolute value (i.e, ignore any negative signs) of each term and add them up, i.e, |1| + |-1| = 1 + 1 = 2.
Just apply the same logic to your question, taking upward movement as positive distances, and downward movement as negative distances, to calculate the answers.