Vectors

Magnitude & Direction

On the previous page, we saw that for a given vector in component form, \(\textbf{v} = \left< a,b \right>\), we can compute the magnitude of \(\textbf{v}\) using the formula \(|\textbf{v}| = \sqrt{a^2 + b^2}\) and the direction of \(\textbf{v}\) using the formula \(\tan{\theta} = \frac{b}{a}\). Let's look at a few examples.