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What do you mean? A vector is a direction and magnitude!
Maybe they mean std::vector in C++?
It's a terrible name. The math answer is what I would give.
It's not a terrible name, since it's derived from the mathematical construct of vectors as
n-tuples. In the case of vectors in programming,nrelates to the size of the underlying array, and the tuple consists of the elements of the vector.That makes sense.
I myself was confused, when I first saw what a vector did in practice.
Really bad name.But then I didn't take Comp Sci.
The only correct answer for a 101 introduction. It’s an incredible powerful intuition even in contexts where vectors are seemingly used as a list of numbers.
You can also define a vector by the equivalent “sides of the right triangle”. In 2D, the x,y coordinates. In computer science, vectors are n-tuples, so they represent a math/physics vector but in n-dimensions.
Yes, and as linear algebra teaches, to convert a vector from direction and magnitude to a list of numbers (components), follow these steps:
- Let the magnitude of the vector be represented by the symbol |A| or A.
- Let the direction of the vector be represented by the angle θ, which is measured counterclockwise from the positive x-axis.
- The x-component of the vector is given by: Ax = |A| cos(θ)
- The y-component of the vector is given by: Ay = |A| sin(θ)
The vector can now be represented as a list of numbers: A = (Ax, Ay)
For example, if a vector has a magnitude of 5 units and a direction of 30° counterclockwise from the positive x-axis, its components would be:
Ax = 5 cos(30°) ≈ 4.33 units Ay = 5 sin(30°) ≈ 2.50 units
The vector can now be written as A = (4.33, 2.50)