Can anyone explain displacement and vectors to me?

Question

My physics teacher is pretty difficult to understand things from her, and I was wondering if anyone would like to explain things a little better to me?

Looking for some simple explaination of magitude, components, and displacement of vectors.

Thank you!

Answer 1

magnitude is the length of a vector and it is always greater than or equal to zero (cannot be negative)

components are projections of vector over the x and y axis, and the easiest way to find them is to draw a picture representation and use trigonometry

displacement vector is simply a straight line connection between the initial and final position


try these links:

http://www.physics.nmt.edu/~raymond/classes/ph13xbook/node21.html

http://id.mind.net/~zona/mstm/physics/mechanics/vectors/componentAddition/componentAddition2.htm

Answer 2

Displacement is the shortest distance between two points.
The displacement can be a negative value if it is represented on a map.
A magnitute is the modulus value of a displacement. So, a magnitude is a positive value of a displacement.
Well, imagne a simlpe and short line is drawn. How would you describe it? A vector is a number (a magnitude) together with a direction (compare with scalar). So, a vector describes a line of how much magnitude and in what direction it is drawn.