• Component Method of Summing Vectors

Pre-requisite skills:  Understanding of Pythagorean Theorem.  Understanding of the arctangent helpful.

Approximate completion time:  Under an hour.

Provide sufficient detail to verify that the assignment was completed in a meaningful manner.

MERLOT site:   Vector Arithmetic and Scalar Product Page, by Fu-Kwun Hwang.  (direct link). 

Applet by Fu Kwun Hwang

• Click twice in the plot area to place two vectors in the plot area.  What happens?    From what you see, can you determine why the head-to-tail and parallelogram methods are identical?

Consider the following physical problem:  Suppose an airplane has a top speed of 200 mph.  It attempts to fly 45 degrees West of North.  Calculate the component vectors of the velocity vector of the plane as if it experienced no wind.  Using the applet, draw this vector.

Unfortunately, the airplane experiences a win of 80 mph pointing East.  Draw a vector representing the wind velocity. The applet will add the two vectors to produce the resultant velocity vector. By examining this resultant vector, will the wind increase or decrease the speed of the plane? Which direction will the airplane take, and what its ultimate speed will be?

Helpful Resources

1. Circular Motion by Zona Land.
2. Oscillation and Wave by Fu Kwun Hwang.
3. Simple Harmonic Motion and Uniform Circular Motion by Fu Kwun Hwang.
4. Circular Motion and Simple Harmonic Motion by Sadahisa Kamikawa.
5. Circle and Something More by Surendranath Reddy B.
6. Amplitude of Circular Motion by Angel Franco Garcia.

Return to Web Assignments