A Vector Is an Instruction, Not an Address

You'll learnto treat a vector as an instruction to move, not a fixed location.

A point tells you where something is. A vector tells you how to get somewhere: so far across, so far up. That distinction decides everything downstream, because two arrows drawn in completely different places can be the same vector, and the length of a sum is almost never the sum of the lengths. Twelve short steps; press Next for each one.

12 STEPS · 6 QUICK CHECKS · DISPLACEMENT · MAGNITUDE · COMPONENTS · v3

Unit 4 is not assessed on the AP exam; schools include it where local requirements ask.

an arrow says how far across and up, never where to start

Before you start

What you're looking at

One arrow drawn from the origin, saying 4 across and 3 up, with its two legs marked.

The question

How is the vector ⟨4, 3⟩ different from the point (4, 3)?

Step 1 / 12