Vector quantities
Vector quantities have both The size of a physical quantity. and an associated direction. This makes them different from scalar quantities, which just have magnitude.
Examples of vector quantities
Some examples of vector quantities include:
- force – eg 20 newtons (N) to the left
- weight – eg 600 newtons (N) downwards
- displacement – eg 50 kilometres (km) east
- velocity – eg 11 metres per second (m/s) upwards
- acceleration – eg 9.8 metres per second squared (m/s2) downwards
- momentum – eg 250 kilogram metres per second (kg m/s) south west
The direction of a vector can be given in a written description, or drawn as an arrow. The length of an arrow represents the magnitude of the quantity. If one arrow is twice as long as another, it represents a force which has twice the magnitude.
The diagrams show three examples of vectors, drawn to different scales.