What is the total displacement of a student who walks 3 blocks east, 2 blocks north, 1 block west, and then 2 blocks south?

To find the total displacement of the student, we can treat each block as a vector, where east is positive and west is negative on the x-axis, and north is positive and south is negative on the y-axis.
Walking 3 blocks east corresponds to a displacement of +3 units in the x-direction.
Walking 2 blocks north corresponds to a displacement of +2 units in the y-direction.
Walking 1 block west corresponds to a displacement of -1 unit in the x-direction.
Walking 2 blocks south corresponds to a displacement of -2 units in the y-direction.
Now, we can find the total displacement by adding these individual displacements together:
Total displacement in the x-direction = 3 (east) - 1 (west) = 3 - 1 = 2 units east. Total displacement in the y-direction = 2 (north) - 2 (south) = 2 - 2 = 0 units.
So, the total displacement of the student is 2 units east and 0 units north. This means the student ends up 2 blocks to the east of their starting point with no north-south displacement, resulting in a total displacement of 2 units east.