this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2024
504 points (97.0% liked)

Science Memes

10348 readers
1933 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.


Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 76 points 4 months ago (8 children)

What do you mean? A vector is a direction and magnitude!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Yes, and as linear algebra teaches, to convert a vector from direction and magnitude to a list of numbers (components), follow these steps:

  1. Let the magnitude of the vector be represented by the symbol |A| or A.
  2. Let the direction of the vector be represented by the angle θ, which is measured counterclockwise from the positive x-axis.
  3. The x-component of the vector is given by: Ax = |A| cos(θ)
  4. The y-component of the vector is given by: Ay = |A| sin(θ)

The vector can now be represented as a list of numbers: A = (Ax, Ay)

For example, if a vector has a magnitude of 5 units and a direction of 30° counterclockwise from the positive x-axis, its components would be:

Ax = 5 cos(30°) ≈ 4.33 units Ay = 5 sin(30°) ≈ 2.50 units

The vector can now be written as A = (4.33, 2.50)

source

load more comments (7 replies)