What is a Vector What is a Scalar

1
What is a Vector? What is a Scalar?

• Scalars are quantities which are fully described
  by a magnitude alone.
• Vectors are quantities which are fully described
  by both a magnitude and a direction.

2
Vector or Scalar?

• 5 m
• b. 30 m/sec, East
• c. 5 mi., North
• d. 20 degrees Celsius
• e. 256 bytes
• f. 4000 Calories

3

• Distance is a scalar quantity which refers to
  "how much ground an object has covered" during
  its motion.
• Displacement is a vector quantity which refers to
  "how far out of place an object is" it is the
  object's change in position.

4
A physics teacher walks 4 meters East, 2 meters
South, 4 meters West, and finally 2 meters
North.
5
Even though the physics teacher has walked a
total distance of 12 meters, her displacement is
0 meters.
6
The skier moves from A to B to C to D. Use the
diagram to determine the resulting displacement
and the distance traveled by the skier during
these three minutes.
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• Distance 180m 140m 100m 420 m
• Displacement 140m rightward

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• What is the displacement of the MHS cross-country
  team if they begin at the school, run 10 miles
  and finish back at the school?
• 2. What is the distance and the displacement of
  the race car drivers in the Indy 500?

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• 1. The displacement is Zero miles they have
  covered a distance of 10 miles, but they are not
  out of place
• 2. Displacement is zero miles, 500 mile distance
  covered

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• Vector diagrams are diagrams which depict the
  direction and relative magnitude of a vector
  quantity by a vector arrow.

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In a vector diagram, the magnitude of a vector is
represented by the size of the vector arrow.
12

• In future studies, vector diagrams will be used
  to represent a variety of physical quantities
  such as acceleration, force, and momentum

13

• Write a few sentences about how vectors relate to
  three items in the real world.

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