Describing motion verbally with distance and displacement

Distance is the actual position traveled by an object. Displacement is the shortest distance covered by the object.

Explanation:

Distance is the actual length covered by an object from one position to another. It is a scalar quantity. It cannot be negative.

Displacement is the shortest distance covered by the object. The displacement can be calculated by subtracting initial distance from the final distance. It is vector quantity. The displacement covered by an object can be zero, negative and positive.

Suppose, the boy travels from home to school then come back to his home. The distance between from his home to his school is 3 km.

In this case, the boy covers the total distance from home to school then to home is 6 km. But the displacement is zero because he comes to same position.