Question

How to identify the components of a vector?

Answer 1

A vector is a quantity that has both magnitude and direction and to identify the components of vector, you need to break it into parts called components. These components depict the influence of that vector in a given direction. For example, in the vector (6, 2), the horizontal or x-axis component is 6 and the vertical or y-axis component is 2. With this, you have an angle and a magnitude to define a vector, where you have to find the components yourself with the help of trigonometry. The magnitude of vector is expressed as v and by multiplying both sides of these equations by v, you can expressed the x and y components as  Vx = vcos and Vy = vsin.

The combined influence of the two components is equivalent to the influence of the single two-dimensional vector and this single two-dimensional vector could be replaced by the two components.