One can use Microsoft® Word,1 a text word processing program, for quantitative analysis of vector addition. The advantages include the ubiquitous availability of MS Word for students and teachers alike in a variety of settings and its flexibility of usage. This paper describes a simple method of practicing vector addition skills using the drawing package that comes with MS Word. The method provides the student with a convenient hands-on approach to visualizing vector arithmetic that is both geometric (pictorial)and quantitative.
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A word processing application.©Microsoft Corp. 1983–2001. Microsoft®Word 2002.
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See EPAPS Document E-PHTEAH-43-008508 for a sample problem and explanation.
This document may be retrieved via the EPAPS homepage (http://www.aip.org/pubservs/epaps.html) or from ftp.aip.org in the directory epaps, in the phys_teach folder. See the EPAPS homepage for more information.
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David
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H. Young and R. Freedman, University Physics, 11th ed. (Addison-Wesley, San Francisco, 2004), p. 1378.
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S. Lea and J. Burke, Physics: The Nature of Things (West Publishing, St. Paul, MN, 1997), pp. 581–584.
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© 2005 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2005
American Association of Physics Teachers
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