Lesson 11.3: Vectors

Explanation

Vectors are often displayed as letters with arrows above them similar to rays. However, vectors may also be shown as boldfaced lower case letters and appear without an arrow. A double-barbed arrow or a single-barbed arrow may be displayed above the letters. The most common usage is a single-barbed arrow with the barb to the right and on top of the shaft. This might also be referred to as a half-barb. In general, a full-barbed arrow indicates a ray and a single-barbed arrow indicates a vector.

Sometimes a text may consistently display arrows above vectors that are also displayed in bold print. If arrows are consistently used above vectors that are also shown in boldface type throughout a text, the arrows must be omitted in braille unless the author specifically refers to the vectors with the arrows, as part of a notational explanation. The boldface font is enough of an indication that the symbol shown is a vector in both print and in braille. Therefore, a the vector displayed as a bold v with an arrow over it would normally be displayed simply as >.

Example 1

$\stackrel{\rightharpoonup }{n}$
⠐⠝⠣⠒⠒⠈⠕⠻

Example 2

$\stackrel{\rightharpoonup }{n}+\stackrel{\rightharpoonup }{u}$
⠐⠝⠣⠒⠒⠈⠕⠻⠬⠐⠥⠣⠒⠒⠈⠕⠻

Example 3

$\stackrel{\rightharpoonup }{m}=\frac{2}{3}(\stackrel{\rightharpoonup }{v}-\stackrel{\rightharpoonup }{u})$
⠐⠍⠣⠒⠒⠈⠕⠻⠀⠨⠅⠀⠹⠆⠌⠒⠼⠷⠐⠧⠣⠒⠒⠈⠕⠻⠤⠐⠥⠣⠒⠒⠈⠕⠻⠾

Example 4

$\text{Find the the magnitude of}\stackrel{\rightharpoonup }{a}\text{.}$
⠠⠋⠊⠝⠙⠀⠞⠓⠑⠀⠍⠁⠛⠝⠊⠞⠥⠙⠑⠀⠕⠋⠀⠸⠩⠀⠐⠁⠣⠒⠒⠈⠕⠻⠀⠸⠱⠲

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