MA28-11 Maths Coming soon

Expressing a vector in terms of given vectors

MA28-11

This lesson is coming soon.

Watch now instead: MA32-01 Mean, median, mode and range

In this lesson

Use position vectors and the sum/difference of two given vectors to express any labelled vector in a diagram (e.g. AC) in terms of those two vectors.

What it covers

Representing a vector as a directed line segment with a start and end point
Using position vectors from a fixed origin to describe a point's location
Finding the vector between two points by subtracting their position vectors (e.g. AB = b - a)
Expressing any vector in a diagram (e.g. finding AC) as a sum/difference of two given vectors a and b by tracing a path through the diagram
Finding the resultant of two or more vectors combined head-to-tail

Key words

vector route position vector express vector in terms of resultant vector

For: Cambridge IGCSE 0580, Edexcel IGCSE 4MA1

On the specification

Board	Spec	Statement
Cambridge IGCSE 0580	E7.4	Represent vectors by directed line segments.
Edexcel IGCSE 4MA1	H5.1F	Find the resultant of two or more vectors

For teachers

This GCSE Maths lesson teaches expressing a vector in terms of given vectors. By the end, students should be able to use position vectors and the sum/difference of two given vectors to express any labelled vector in a diagram (e.g. AC) in terms of those two vectors. It works through two worked examples and the mistakes examiners report.