Displacement, being a vector quantity, must give attention to direction. ... Vector quantities such as displacement are direction aware. Scalar quantities such as distance are ignorant of direction. In determining the overall distance traveled by the physics teachers, the various directions of motion can be ignored.
Is displacement and direction the same?
Displacement has a direction as well as a magnitude. When you start a problem, assign which direction will be positive. Distance is the magnitude of displacement between two positions. Distance traveled is the total length of the path traveled between two positions.
Does net displacement have direction?
The two quantities are equal when the motion occurs without any change in direction. In that case, the individual displacements point in the same direction, so the magnitude of the net displacement is equal to the sum of the magnitudes of the individual displacements (the total distance).