Preparation: Kinematics/Position/.

Displacement is a vector quantity. It is denoted or D. The second notation is appropriate because a displacement is a change in position and is the symbol for position vector.

Click on the ball and drag it to a starting position you like. Then select the Displacement button and drag the ball to a new location. The ball's displacement vector D will be displayed, along with the ball's original position vector ₀ and current position vector .

Observe that the displacement vector = D is equal to the difference between the two position vectors,

= D = - ₀.