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.

8 STEPS · 6 QUICK CHECKS · DISPLACEMENT · MAGNITUDE · COMPONENTS · v2

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

arrowheads show each vector's direction

Before you start

What you're looking at

A person at a marked spot following the instruction '4 right, 3 up.'

The question

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

Watch for

The same arrow drawn in different places being one vector, and the dot product answering its own separate question.

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