Vector Components – Interactive!

MathTutorDVD.com – We’ve just released a new tool on the
website that allows you to interactively view the
vector components of a vector.

Decomposing a vector is an extremely important topic for
all math students to master, and is used in all higher classes
such as Trig, Calculus, Physics, and all levels of Engineering.

Understanding this topic is easiest when we discuss motion
of an object in the presence of gravity.  If we throw a ball at
an angle to the ground we discover that the motion is a
curved arc.  This motion is fairly complicated but it can be
simplified a great deal by performing vector decomposition
to break the vector up in to “x”and “y” components.

When we do this, we can calculate the motion along the
vertical direction (y-direction) and separately along the
horizontal direction (x-direction).

We can then calculate the motion in these directions
separately which is much easier than trying to use
Newton’s laws to calculate the motion in both directions
at the same time.