A hamster in a ball begins its journey 5 feet to the left of a refrigerator, travels 20 feet to the right of the refrigerator, and ends its journey directly in front of the refrigerator.
If negative values are assigned to positions to the left of its starting position and positive values are assigned to positions to the right of its starting position, what is the displacement of the hamster?
A) -5 feet
B) 0 feet
C) 5 feet
D) 20 feet
To determine the displacement of the hamster, we need to find the overall change in position from the starting point to the ending point.
We can break down the movement of the hamster into two parts:
1) It moves 5 feet to the left of the refrigerator.
2) It then moves an additional 20 feet to the right of the refrigerator.
Since the hamster moves both to the left and to the right, we need to consider the direction of its movement. With negative values assigned to positions to the left and positive values assigned to positions to the right, the hamster's initial movement of 5 feet to the left corresponds to a displacement of -5 feet.
Similarly, its subsequent movement of 20 feet to the right corresponds to a displacement of +20 feet.
To find the overall displacement, we add these two values:
-5 feet + 20 feet = 15 feet
Therefore, the displacement of the hamster is 15 feet.
None of the given answer choices match the calculated displacement, so the correct answer is not among the options provided.