The ball fell from a height of 5m, bounced off the floor and was caught at a height of 1.5m.

The ball fell from a height of 5m, bounced off the floor and was caught at a height of 1.5m. Find the path and movement of the ball.

Here it is necessary to clarify the difference between the concept of “path” and “movement”

Path – the length of the trajectory along which the body moves
Move – the length of the line that connects the start and end positions.

For understanding, let’s draw an analogy with a high-rise 10-storey building, which has a staircase of steps and an elevator. (Suppose the entrance to the elevator and the staircase are located practically at the same point) The starting point of the 1st floor is the end point of the 10th. If you use the elevator, then moving vertically upward (like along a segment) you will immediately get to the 10th floor – this is a movement, and if you go up the stairs, you have a long and long way to go (equal to the sum of the lengths of all the stairs). And in order to understand what a trajectory is, imagine that while you were climbing the stairs, you drew one continuous line on the wall, which stretched from the 1st to the 10th floor – this line is the trajectory.

In this task:
The ball falls from a height of 5 meters, and then rises by 1.5 meters as a result: Ball path = 5 + 1.5 = 6.5, and movement 5 – 1.5 = 3.5 m