Uses for Vectors

Question:

I am just beginning to study vectors. Can you give me any idea where we use the knowledge of vectors in everyday life and what jobs need a knowledge of vectors? I think it will be interesting. I am a grade ten student in Nova Scotia and think this will be a challenging unit.

Thank you.

Answer:

Vectors are just numbers with a direction attached to them. Anytime you want to know how something moves you need to consider for example its speed and direction. You can handle these two ideas separately but vectors are a time and labor saving way of handling them as a single concept.

Many people get through life just fine without learning how to handle vectors. People whose profession involves the movement of things usually depend on vectors to help them organize their thoughts. Examples are airline pilots, sea captains, doctors tracking the progress of an epidemic, meteorologists tracking weather systems, engineers of every kind dealing with forces and motion, scientists, astronauts, etc.

This information is brought to you by M. Casco Associates, a company dedicated to helping humankind reach the stars through understanding how the universe works. My name is James D. Jones. If I can be of more help, please let me know.

JDJ