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| Displacement Vector |
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| Displacement vector is a vector which gives the position of a point with reference to a point other than the origin of the coordinate system. |
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Let a particle at a point P at an instant of time t, move to another point Q at time tl. The position vectors of P and Q with reference to
the origin 0, are respectively. The
vector directed from P to Q, is the displacement vector corresponding to the motion of the particle from position P to Q. |
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The displacement vector gives the position of Q with
reference to P. So, it is a sort of position vector, with the difference that P, the position vector gives the position of a point with reference to the origin O, the displacement vector gives the position with reference to a point other than the origin. The displacement vector is independent of the choice of the origin. |
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| We have, |
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| Thus, displacement vector is the difference between two position vectors. |
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| If (x1, y1) (x2, y2) are the coordinates of P and Q respectively, then,  |
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| Extending to three dimensions, |
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