Scalar Quantity
Classical Mechanics
Level
1
Which is a scalar quantity?
distance
acceleration
displacement
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1 solution
In the world of kinematics,a scalar quantity is on who's measurement will not be related by position to the field it is in or in other words has only a magnitude,not a directionwise/position sign,unlike a vector quantity.For example,velocity is a vector quantity because when an object is going in the opposite direction of the direction intended or relative to another object,the velocity is negative.However,speed is always positive and is a scalar.So first I will provide proof that displacement is a vector.Suppose a confused person walked back and forth 10 ft 100 times.His displacement is still 0,because he just ended up where he started.However the distance he traveled(a scalar but keep reading to find out more) was 1000 ft(10x100).So now we have eliminated displacement.Now for acceleration.Acceleration is a vector for 2 reasons.A:it is mathematically related to a vector(displacement/time^2 or velocity/time)and B:if your acceleration is the other way it's negative.Therefore,the answer is distance(you might have noticed earlier in the solution).