Which Way is North?

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

• Reflections from the original implementation.

• Reflections from "official" adapters/adopters.

• Reflections from the general public.

Instructor's Guide

• Wiki version

vcnorthguide.pdf

Student Handouts

vcnorthhand.pdf