Teacher Demonstration
Use the live model as a shared screen demonstration before students try their own predictions and observations.
Measurement
Vector Addition Patterns Model
Explore Vector Addition Patterns Model as an interactive EJS simulation for Measurement.
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1. Watch or Launch
Launch the Interactive
Open the simulation, adjust the controls, and compare what changes on screen before answering the concept-check questions.
2. Big Ideas
Key idea The Vector Addition Patterns Model lets students add two rotating vectors and observe the resultant. The source model exposes each vector's length, angle, x- and y-components, rotation rate, and preset patterns such as coil, heart, circle, ellipse, flower, and four circles.
What Students Can Learn
- Use the blue and red vectors as the two inputs and the purple/resultant vector as their vector sum.
- Connect x- and y-components in the table to the arrows drawn on the plotting panel.
- Change vector lengths, angles, and rotation rates to see how the resultant path is formed.
- Use pattern presets as evidence that visual patterns come from vector addition over time.
Guiding Question
How do the two rotating input vectors and their components create the resultant vector path and the displayed pattern?
3. Try the Investigation
Show the Resultant
Turn on the resultant vector and compare the purple/orange resultant with the blue and red input vectors.
Read Components
Use the table or component arrows to check how each vector's x- and y-components add to the resultant components.
Change Length or Angle
Adjust one vector length or angle while keeping the other vector fixed, then observe how the resultant changes.
Explore Patterns
Use a preset such as heart, coil, circle, ellipse, flower, or four circles, then relate the traced path to the vectors' rotation rates.
4. Teacher Notes
Lesson Use
Use this page to bridge vector addition and dynamic patterns. Students should not only admire the traced shape; they should explain it using lengths, angles, components, and the resultant vector.
Discussion Prompts
Ask: Which components are being added? When is the resultant largest or smallest? What changes when one rotation rate changes? Why can two simple rotating vectors trace a complex pattern?
Teaching Moves
Start with vectors not rotating, then show components and resultant. After students can explain one static sum, use Play and pattern presets to extend the same addition idea over time.
Model Notes
The source code explicitly includes Vector 1, Vector 2, Resultant, x-component, y-component, length, angle, rotation rate, and pattern presets. These are the page-specific evidence to cite.
5. Concept Check
These questions are generated from the topic and the concept illustrated by the simulation. Use them after students have explored the model.
Concept Score
Correct first attempts build a streak and unlock higher point multipliers on this device.
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Answer each question once to build your streak.
1. What does the resultant vector represent?
2. What should students compare in the component table?
3. Why do vector lengths and angles matter?
4. What do the pattern presets help students investigate?
5. What is strong evidence from this model?
Expert Challenge
Unlocks after 3 correct concept-check answers on this page.
1. In the Vector Addition Patterns Model, what does the traced path represent?
2. What should students check when the component table is visible?
3. A student changes the rotation rate and says the vector sum rule changed. What feedback is best?
4. How should students explain a maximum possible resultant for two fixed vector lengths?
5. What makes an answer expert-level for this page?
7. Learning Pulse
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