How do you calculate displacement?

In order to calculate the displacement, one could simply draw a vector from the starting position up to the final position. The length of this vector line would give the displacement. Displacement is hence also referred to as the shortest distance between two paths since it follows a straight line and not a curve.

Displacement is hence a vector quantity, as it has a direction along with a magnitude whereas displacement is a scalar quantity as it does not have a direction but has a magnitude. Both are important concepts that are used in the study of physics. Calculation of displacement is the most basic concepts of classical mechanics.