School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Sydney
 3. Addition and subtraction of vectors
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The parallelogram rule for addition

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Suppose u and v are two vectors (in the plane or in space). Translate them so that they are tail-to-tail at point O.

v u O

From the head of each vector, draw a copy of the other vector to complete a parallelogram OAPB. In this parallelogram, u = ---> OA = ----> BP and v = ----> OB = - --> AP.

u P B v v u A O

---> The vector u + v is defined to be the vectorOP .

B P u + v v u O A

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