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In geometry, a position or position vector, also known as location vector or radius vector, is a Euclidean vector that represents a point P in space. Its length represents the distance in relation to an arbitrary reference origin O , and its direction represents the angular orientation with respect to given reference axes.
In geometry and mechanics, a displacement is a vector whose length is the shortest distance from the initial to the final position of a point P undergoing motion. [1] It quantifies both the distance and direction of the net or total motion along a straight line from the initial position to the final position of the point trajectory.
That is (unlike road distance with one-way streets) the distance between two points does not depend on which of the two points is the start and which is the destination. [12] It is positive, meaning that the distance between every two distinct points is a positive number, while the distance from any point to itself is zero. [12]
Absement changes as an object remains displaced and stays constant as the object resides at the initial position. It is the first time-integral of the displacement [3] [4] (i.e. absement is the area under a displacement vs. time graph), so the displacement is the rate of change (first time-derivative) of the absement.
For positions on the Earth or other solid celestial body, the reference plane is usually taken to be the plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation. Instead of the radial distance r geographers commonly use altitude above or below some local reference surface ( vertical datum ), which, for example, may be the mean sea level .
A metric or distance function is a function d which takes pairs of points or objects to real numbers and satisfies the following rules: The distance between an object and itself is always zero. The distance between distinct objects is always positive. Distance is symmetric: the distance from x to y is always the same as the distance from y to x.
Geodetic latitude and geocentric latitude have different definitions. Geodetic latitude is defined as the angle between the equatorial plane and the surface normal at a point on the ellipsoid, whereas geocentric latitude is defined as the angle between the equatorial plane and a radial line connecting the centre of the ellipsoid to a point on the surface (see figure).
Snap, [6] or jounce, [2] is the fourth derivative of the position vector with respect to time, or the rate of change of the jerk with respect to time. [4] Equivalently, it is the second derivative of acceleration or the third derivative of velocity, and is defined by any of the following equivalent expressions: = ȷ = = =.