Vectors

Vectors show up everywhere in physics: displacement vectors, velocity vectors, acceleration vectors, force vectors, momentum vectors and more. So we definitely want to know how to work with vectors.

While a scalar describes the magnitude or the value of something (like a speed of 30 km/h), a vector describes the magnitude and direction of something (like a velocity of 30 km/h east). We usually represent vectors as arrows where the length of the arrow tells us the magnitude, and the direction of the arrow tells us... the direction.

To make vectors more useful, and to add or subtract them, we need to know how to find the components of a vector. We can do that by using the trig functions. We can also use those to find the magnitude and angle of a vector when starting with the components.

We'll also cover how to describe the angle of a vector and how to add vectors using the tip-to-tail method or by adding components.

Vectors & Components (15:13)
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Vectors and components

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Coordinate systems

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How to find components of a vector

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Summary

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Introduction

Vectors show up everywhere in physics: displacement vectors, velocity vectors, acceleration vectors, force vectors, momentum vectors and more. So we definitely want to know how to work with vectors.

While a scalar describes the magnitude or the value of something (like a speed of 30 km/h), a vector describes the magnitude and direction of something (like a velocity of 30 km/h east). We usually represent vectors as arrows where the length of the arrow tells us the magnitude, and the direction of the arrow tells us... the direction.

To make vectors more useful, and to add or subtract them, we need to know how to find the components of a vector. We can do that by using the trig functions. We can also use those to find the magnitude and angle of a vector when starting with the components.

We'll also cover how to describe the angle of a vector and how to add vectors using the tip-to-tail method or by adding components.

Study Guide
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