A father travels from his home to a shop and back four times. Each trip to the shop is 250m. Calculate the total distance travelled and his displacement from home.

The father's journey consists of four segments:

• Home to shop: $250 \text{ m}$
• Shop back to home: $250 \text{ m}$
• Home back to shop: $250 \text{ m}$
• Shop back to home: $250 \text{ m}$

The total distance is the sum of the lengths of all these segments.

$$\text{Total distance} = 250 \text{ m} + 250 \text{ m} + 250 \text{ m} + 250 \text{ m}$$ $$\text{Total distance} = 4 \times 250 \text{ m}$$ $$\text{Total distance} = 1000 \text{ m}$$

Displacement is the shortest distance from the initial position to the final position.
The initial position is home.
The final position is also home, as the father "came back home" at the end of his journey.
Since the initial and final positions are the same, the displacement is zero.

$$\text{Displacement} = \text{Final position} - \text{Initial position}$$ $$\text{Displacement} = \text{Home} - \text{Home}$$ $$\text{Displacement} = 0 \text{ m}$$

The total distance travelled was $\boxed{\text{1000 m}}$.
His displacement from home was $\boxed{\text{0 m}}$.