School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Sydney
 2. Representations of vectors
Main menu Section menu   Previous section Next section button disabled Vector notation
Glossary
Examples
Quiz

Vectors as directed line segments

Page 1 of 4 

Vectors are represented in a natural way by directed line segments, the length of the segment measuring the magnitude of the vector and the arrowhead indicating the direction of the vector. The arrowhead is usually placed at one end (or near the end) of the line segment; this end is called the head of the vector and the other end is called the tail of the vector. Such vectors are called free vectors because they are distinguished only by their length and direction, and not by their position in space.

          head                                 head                        or  tail                                  tail

The vector with the same magnitude as u but opposite direction, the negative of u, is labelled -u.

u                           - u

The zero vector (a vector with zero length and no direction) is written 0.

Feedback
Main menu Section menu   Previous section Next section button disabled Vector notation