Module 1—Motion

Lesson 1—The Language of Motion: Working with Vectors

 

Get Focused

 

A chuckwagon is shown crossing the finish line at the Calgary Stampede.

© Muriel Lasure/shutterstock

Chuckwagon racing is a perfect example of a race in which the winner, assuming he or she completes the race, actually doesn't go anywhere—at the end of the race, the chuckwagon is in the same position as it was when the race began. So how fast did the horses run? The horses ran fairly fast considering the race is usually over in less than 1 minute and 20 seconds. What is really interesting, though, is that since the chuckwagon didn't really change position from start to finish, it actually maintained an average velocity of exactly 0.0 m/s. It seems strange to think of a moving object maintaining a fairly high rate of speed, yet still having an average velocity of zero at the end of the race. The explanation for this is that speed and distance are defined differently than the vector quantities velocity and displacement. In order to understand the difference between speed and velocity, you must first understand how a vector is defined.

 

direction: the course that an object follows

In this lesson you will define and graphically represent vector quantities, including magnitude and direction, using the Cartesian method and the navigational method of vector notation. You will also be able to calculate vector magnitude and direction based on Cartesian components and vice versa.

 

This first lesson may seem quite a challenge with all the new content presented. These new concepts will be important in supporting your work in the rest of the lessons in the module. The subsequent lessons will not challenge you with as much new content but will provide opportunities to practise and apply these concepts along with new ones you will learn.

 

In this lesson you will begin your Physics 20 course folder. You will need a container (either real or virtual) to hold the items that you produce. These items will provide you with a growing indicator of your progress through Physics 20 and will let you show your teacher and others how much your have learned.

 

In this lesson and related lab activities you will explore the following questions:

Module 1: Lesson 1 Assignments

 

Your teacher-marked Module 1: Lesson 1 Assignment requires you to submit a response to the following:

The other questions in this lesson are not marked by the teacher; however, you should still answer these questions. The Self-Check and Try This questions are placed in this lesson to help you review important information and build key concepts that may be applied in future lessons.

 

After a discussion with your teacher, you must decide what to do with the questions that are not part of your assignment. For example, you may decide to submit to your teacher the responses to Try This questions that are not marked. You should record the answers to all the questions in this lesson and place those answers in your course folder.