Specialist Options – Intro to Vectors
Navigational Vectors

Distance
1. Select a town or city in Queensland, Northern Territory or Western Australia.
Weipa

2. Using Straight Line Distance Calculator calculate the distance from your chosen town to Canberra in kilometres. Distance is the scalar value.
2623.068km

Displacement
Suppose you want to plan a flight from your chosen town/city to Canberra. Can you do this knowing only the distance? No, you also need to know the direction.
1. Find the direction a pilot would need to head the plane to go from your chosen town/city to Canberra using Direction Calculator
This website wasn’t working on my computer.

2. Express the distance and direction together (example: 10km at 37˚). Distance and direction together is called displacement, Displacement is a vector.

Scalars and Vectors
1. Based on what you’ve learnt in the previous sections, define;
a. Scalar
A scalar is a measurement that doesn’t have a direction

b. Vector
A vector is a measurement with a direction, so the unit in this direction.

2. Give an example from your everyday life of;
a. A scalar time b. A vector
The different ways of motion, eg acceleration

3. Insert a screenshot map of your chosen town/city and Canberra and include the following information;
a. Straight-Line Distance
b. Vector

The vector link wasn’t working on my computer sorry

4. Is the tail or head at Canberra? tail Ready to Become a Pilot?
1. The following information is important for pilots to know for any airplane flight. Which of these quantities are vectors and which are scalars? Give a reason for your answer in each case.
a. Number of passengers: Scalar because there is not a direction__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
b. Plane Speed: Vector because the speed is going in a direction _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
c. Plane velocity: Vector because there is a direction to which it is going _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
d. Distance travelled: Vector because the distance travelled is in a certain direction _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
e. Flight displacement: Scalar because that’s just the value for how far it has gone, not the actual direction _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
f. Flight duration: Scalar because the duration doesn’t tell us which direction _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
g. Plane altitude: Vector because the altitude is the direction upwards _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
h. Acceleration of plane: Vector because the plane accelerates in a direction