BuildPhysics

AP Physics 1 · Unit 1 · Kinematics

Displacement and Velocity Practice Problems

Work out how far an object travels, where it ends up, and how fast its position changes. Practice with one-way journeys, return trips, and stops along the way.

12 questions6 conceptual · 6 calculation

Start practice

Free · No account required · Self-paced

Simulation scene from the Displacement and Velocity lesson.Open interactive practice
A scene from the related lesson. Open the practice to work through the questions.

What you’ll practice

Make sense of the whole journey

Separate path from position change

Find distance and displacement for a trip with a reversal. Use initial and final coordinates, including positions on either side of zero.

Calculate whole-trip averages

Find average speed and average velocity using the full journey time. Include pauses and account for different speeds on different legs.

Read position and direction

Explain why a cart can be left of the origin and still have positive velocity. Compare trips with the same average but different motion along the way.

A question from this set

A detour changes the path

A cart travels 7 m right, then 3 m left along the same straight track. How does the total distance compare with the magnitude of its displacement?

  • The distance is greater than the displacement magnitude.
  • They must be equal because the motion is along a straight line.
  • The distance is smaller because the cart comes back.
Try it in the practice set
A cart moves right, then partly back left The cart starts at zero meters, travels seven meters right, and then travels three meters left to finish at four meters. Right is positive. Positive direction → 7 m right 3 m left 01234567 m Start Finish
Follow both legs, then compare the start and finish.

Key ideas

Choose the measurement that fits the question

Distance counts the route. Displacement compares endpoints.

Add every leg’s length to find distance. For displacement, subtract the initial position from the final position: Δx = xf − xi. Returning to the start gives zero displacement, even after a long journey.

The two averages use different numerators.

Average speed is total distance divided by total elapsed time. Average velocity is displacement divided by that same time. A delivery stop adds time without adding distance. Simply averaging two speeds can give the wrong whole-trip answer.

See the physics

Check your answer. Watch the journey.

After checking an answer—or each part of a calculation—run the prepared scene. Follow the cart, compare its route with its start and finish, and inspect the numerical motion values. Other questions let you compare coordinate origins or two rovers with the same whole-trip average.

Use a hint when you need a starting point, or open a worked solution to follow the reasoning. Your progress saves in this browser, so you can return to unfinished questions.

Ready to put it into practice?

Start with a short conceptual question, then work through the calculations.

Start practice