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Re: teaching vectors



An exercise I like is as follows:

1) Get a set of maps for your local city or area.
2) Make up a set of directions that start at your school and end up
someplace interesting. There should be 8-12 separate segments--like, drive
West for 2 miles, of go South at 30 miles/hour for 3 minutes. When you can,
pick an angled road so that the instructions are similar to--go 20 degrees
North of East for 1 mile.
3) Divide the class in two. Give half maps and half graph paper.
4) The map people follow the trip along on the map. Have them list out
each separate displacement and convert each to the map scale. See if they
end up the correct place.
5) The graph paper group must construct a series of displacement
vectors--to an appropriate scale for the graph paper--and lay them out head
to tail on the graph paper. Then they need to construct a single
displacement vector from the school to the final destination. They then
come up to a single map, convert their vector from miles to the map scale,
and lay it out on the map to see where they end up.
6) Give out a second set of directions--and switch actions. The map people
do the graph paper and vice-a-versa.
7) After the class is done, work out one of the trips by the method of
components. List all the x-components, all the y-components, add them up to
get a final x and a final y. Use these to analytically determine the single
displacement vector for the whole trip.
8) As homework, have the class work out the second trip by components.

Rick

*************************************************
Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
219-284-4664
rtarara@saintmarys.edu

FREE PHYSICS INSTRUCTIONAL SOFTWARE
www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html
MacIntosh versions of the Laboratory Simulations
are now available.
**********************************************************


----- Original Message -----
From: "Raeghan Graessle" <rbyrne1@LUC.EDU>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2002 5:46 PM
Subject: teaching vectors


I am looking for a creative way to teach vectors
to my conceptual physics class (high school level).
Any suggestions?

Raeghan Graessle
Student Teacher
University of Chicago Laboratory Schools

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or
the AAPT.


This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.