The measure of how far an object has moved from its starting point is called displacement.

Here's why it's important to distinguish displacement from other measures of distance:

* Distance: This is the total length of the path traveled by an object. It doesn't care about the direction.

* Displacement: This is the straight-line distance between the starting point and the ending point. It takes direction into account.

Example:

Imagine you walk 5 meters east, then 5 meters west.

* Distance: You traveled a total of 10 meters.

* Displacement: Your displacement is 0 meters because you ended up back where you started.

Displacement is a vector quantity, meaning it has both magnitude (how much) and direction.