Education Technology

Vectors Introduction

Activity Time
30 Minutes
TI-Nspire Version
4.4
Resource Types
Lessons
Format
TNS

Vectors Introduction

Activity Overview

An introduction to vectors visually, conceptually and numerically. Students manipulate vectors to show addition (head to tail) and the parallelogram rule. Students use a column matrix to represent a vector and explore scalar multiples and the magnitude of a vector.

Objectives

  • Add / Subtract vectors visually
  • Add / Subtract vectors numerically
  • Component form of a vector
  • Magnitude of a vector
  • Scalar product

Vocabulary

  • Scalar
  • Vector
  • Magnitude

About the Lesson

Students manipulate vectors adding them head to tail visually then progress to the matrix representation of a vector to see the numerical result. Students develop an understanding of the parallelogram rule to help understand that a + b = b + a. Dynamic objects allow students to see representations of a scalar multiplied by a vector and also the component form of a vector and how to calculate the magnitude of a vector with an informal introduction to the unit vector.

Activity Time
30 Minutes
TI-Nspire Version
4.4
Resource Types
Lessons
Format
TNS
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