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Which Way is North?

Keywords: Vector Calculus, Dot Product, Coordinate Systems

vcnorth.jpg

Highlights of the activity

  1. This small group activity is designed to reinforce the idea that vectors have direction and magnitude.
  2. Students work in small groups to construct and compare physical displacement vectors in two different bases.
  3. The whole class wrap-up discussion emphasizes that the same physical vector can be written in terms of more than one basis.

Reasons to spend class time on the activity

Emphasizes geometric nature of vectors, and especially independence of choice of basis.

Reflections

Instructor's Guide

vcnorthguide.pdf

Student Handouts

vcnorthhand.pdf


Authors: Tevian Dray and Corinne Manogue
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