A shark jumps out of the water and is 4 1/3 feet above the surface of the water. It dives to a depth of 6 1/2 feet below the surface of the water. What is the overall change in the shark's position? *
For "distance"
up 4 1/3
down 4 1/3 + 6 1/2
4+4+6 +2/6 + 2/6 + 3/6 = 14 7/6 = 15 1/6
BUT if position vector, y = 0 at surface, up is positive
THEN>
went from 0 to -6 1/2
so
-6 1/2
In other words the question wording is not clear
In physics we call the first answer a scalar, distance
and the second answer displacement, a vector with magnitude and direction