Question

What is indicated by the AB part of the given distance time graph of a rabbit.

Answer 1

Hint The distance is a scalar quantity (magnitude) that describes the length of the total path covered by a moving object.
The displacement is a vector quantity (magnitude and direction) that describes the difference between the final and initial positions of a moving object. It is the shortest distance moved in a certain direction. Both distance and displacement are measured in units of lengths. (centimeters, meters, kilometers,...)

Complete Step By Step Solution
1. The AB part indicates that rabbit is at rest or stationary (that is its position does not change with time).
2. Since the moving rabbit starts at point A and stays at the same position even at B, there is no change in the position of the object and therefore the distance is equal to zero in the time period between 10 sec to 40 sec.
3. 'Straight lines' on a distance-time graph tell us that the object is travelling at a constant speed.
4. A distance-time graph shows how far an object has travelled in a given time. Distance is plotted on the Y-axis (left) and Time is plotted on the X-axis (bottom).
5. 'Curved lines' on a distance time graph indicate that the speed is changing. The object is either getting faster (accelerating) or slowing down (decelerating). You can see that the distance moved through each second is changing.

Note The final and initial and positions of the moving object are used to find the displacement. The average speed can be calculated for any part of a journey by taking the change in distance and dividing by the change in time for that part of the journey.