A hamster in a ball begins its journey 10 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?
(1 point)
• o feet
O 5 feet
O -20 feet
• 10 feet
The hamster starts 10 feet to the left of the refrigerator and ends directly in front of the refrigerator, which can be considered as 0 feet to the right or to the left. Since positive values are assigned to positions to the right, the displacement of the hamster is 0 feet.
So, the correct answer is: o feet.
To calculate the displacement of the hamster, we need to determine its starting position and its ending position, and then subtract the starting position from the ending position.
Given that the hamster starts 10 feet to the left of the refrigerator and ends directly in front of the refrigerator, the starting position can be represented as -10 feet and the ending position as 0 feet.
Therefore, the displacement of the hamster is 0 feet minus (-10 feet), which simplifies to 10 feet.
So, the correct answer is 10 feet.
To find the displacement of the hamster, we need to calculate the net change in its position from the starting point to the ending point.
The hamster initially starts 10 feet to the left of the refrigerator, so we can assign this as a negative value (-10 feet).
Then, the hamster travels 20 feet to the right of the refrigerator. Since positive values are assigned to positions to the right, we can assign this as a positive value (+20 feet).
Finally, the hamster ends its journey directly in front of the refrigerator. Since this is the reference point, we assign it as 0 feet.
To calculate the displacement, we add up the individual changes:
-10 feet (initial position) + 20 feet (travel to the right) + 0 feet (ending position) = 10 feet.
Therefore, the displacement of the hamster is 10 feet.