Visit www.physicseh.com for free physics tutorial help and lesson videos. This is an activity we do in class where students use vectors to find a secret location in the school and solve for the scale of the secret map.
I like this lesson and would like to do something like it. I get that the students are navigating through the school using vectors to find the hidden point, but how was the top secret scale involved in it all?
@amundeii Part 1) I found about 5 points at the opposite end of the school and then figured out by measuring it, how far it was east and north of where I started. Since I could not measure directly to the points I added up all the E/W and N/S pieces till I found the total E and N from the start. I then came up with 5 sets of 6 different vectors that would add to give you the same east and north components. Each group got one set of vectors.
@amundeii Part 2) The students then set out from the start marked on the floor in the hall and made measurements through the halls. They had to keep track of how far N and E they had to go (since they could not go in a straight line directly to the spot). Once they located the point in the school they mark it on the map and draw a line from the start to the end on the map.
@amundeii Part 3) They then find the resultant of the 6 vectors and compare it to the length of the vector on the map to calculate the scale of the map. Note I should have said: in order to do this they had to add the components of the original 6 vectors to get the total N and E. I also meant that I came up with 5 sets of vectors, one for each of the 5 points in the school, not 5 sets of vectors for each point in the school. I hope this helps.
I like this lesson and would like to do something like it. I get that the students are navigating through the school using vectors to find the hidden point, but how was the top secret scale involved in it all?
amundeii 2 months ago
@amundeii Part 1) I found about 5 points at the opposite end of the school and then figured out by measuring it, how far it was east and north of where I started. Since I could not measure directly to the points I added up all the E/W and N/S pieces till I found the total E and N from the start. I then came up with 5 sets of 6 different vectors that would add to give you the same east and north components. Each group got one set of vectors.
PhysicsEH 2 months ago
@amundeii Part 2) The students then set out from the start marked on the floor in the hall and made measurements through the halls. They had to keep track of how far N and E they had to go (since they could not go in a straight line directly to the spot). Once they located the point in the school they mark it on the map and draw a line from the start to the end on the map.
PhysicsEH 2 months ago
@amundeii Part 3) They then find the resultant of the 6 vectors and compare it to the length of the vector on the map to calculate the scale of the map. Note I should have said: in order to do this they had to add the components of the original 6 vectors to get the total N and E. I also meant that I came up with 5 sets of vectors, one for each of the 5 points in the school, not 5 sets of vectors for each point in the school. I hope this helps.
PhysicsEH 2 months ago