• A?scalar?is a?quantity?which?only?has a magnitude (size)
• A?vector?is a quantity which has?both?a?magnitude?and a?direction
• For example, if a person goes on a hike in the woods to a location which is a couple of miles from their starting point
  • As the crow flies, their?displacement?will only be a few miles but the?distance?they walked will be much longer

Displacement is a vector while distance is a scalar quantity

• Distance?is a?scalar?quantity
  • This is because it describes how an object has travelled overall, but not the direction it has travelled in
• Displacement?is a?vector?quantity
  • This is because it describes how far an object is from where it started and in what direction
• Some common scalar and vector quantities are shown in the table below:

Scalars and Vectors Table