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Tyler Lelea
Pre-Calculus: Period 3
23 May 2014
This Vector Life: Legend
Direct Vector:

Hawthorne is my starting point for my vector project because it is home for me since I
was raised there. My ending point is Irvine, California because it represents what I am largely
interested in as it is the center where Oculus, the company which is working towards virtual
reality, is stationed. I wish to work in the Computer Science field and support the virtual reality
effort in my future. After finding the direct distance from Hawthorne to Irvine (34.87 miles) and
the latitude and longitude of both points using www.mapcrow.info, I had to use math and similar
triangles to convert latitude and longitude into miles to find component form and bearing.

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The Math:

(


)
Now that we know the angle, we can find component form by using the magnitude in
miles and the angle to find the components. First, we must understand that the angle is in the
fourth quadrant, which means that we should subtract it from 360 if we want the actual angle
measurement.



Therefore, component form for the direct vector is:

Since the angle is -23.96, we must add 90 to 23.96 to get the degrees in bearing. We
should ultimately get:

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Vector 1 (K-8):

This first vector represents my years at kindergarten through eighth grade. Since I was
not the best student during these years and was actually a bit of a bully, I feel as though I was
moving backwards. Also, for these years I feel as though I was never really putting effort into
school. Therefore, this vector is moving away from my end goal just like I was without even
realizing it because I didnt know what my end goal was at the time.
The Math:

In order to find the magnitude, we must use the Pythagorean Theorem.

Now we have to find the angle.

)
This is the angle. It was in standard form, but we needed it in bearing, so we added 90.
The final result of all pieces of this vector should look like this:

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for future reference)
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Vector 2 (DVS High School):

The second vector represents my years at DVS. I began to slowly take school more
seriously and I feel like I really changed the most going into my junior year. I feel as though I
can attribute this to the fact that I took English 1A at El Camino over the summer for personal
growth. It kept me on the ball for when I came back to high school. The growth shown in this
vector represents a slower start at growth than my college experiences because I feel as though
college will be more specifically impactful.
The Math:

)
The final result of all pieces of this vector should look like this:

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||||


Vector 3 (El Camino College):

The third vector represents my years at El Camino College after high school, which is
where I plan on going before I transfer to a Cal State (specifically CSULB). There is growth
here, however, it is not too drastic, since this is a community college.
The Math:

)
The final result of all pieces of this vector should look like this:

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Vector 4 (Cal State Long Beach):

The fourth vector represents my years at Cal State Long Beach. The vector here is more
drastic than any of the others. This is because it should prove to be the most directly impactful
on my life and career choice. It covers the most ground since I will be covering the most ground
during this time.
The Math:

The final result of all pieces of this vector should look like this:

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Law of Cosines (Vectors C & D):

We already know the a and b values for this new, non-right triangle, so we can use
them, the Law of Cosines, and adding vectors to find everything else.
The Math:
First, lets add the vectors to get the legs for our hypotenuse.

Next, we can use the Pythagorean Theorem to find the hypotenuse of the triangle.

Now that we have all three side lengths of the non-right triangle (a=8.27, b=22.7, and
c=30.9), we can use the Law of Cosines to get angle C.

)
Now that we have an angle, we can use the Law of Sines to solve for the rest of the
triangle.

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Now that we have all of the sides and two angles, we can just subtract the two angles we
have from 180 to get the last remaining angle value.

After all of that, we have now solved the triangle.


Does it Add Up?

Do all of the components add up to equal

They do.
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Orthogonal and Scalar:
Vectors A and B were orthogonal. This is visible by the usage of a scalar to represent an
opposite reciprocal from A to B. While vector A was , B was which is also
. The fact that the a and b (which can also be seen as the x and y values
which are used for slope) values have been flipped and the opposite sign was applied to the top is
representative of how one would make two lines perpendicular on a graph. That is why this
worked.
The other portion where a scalar was used was from vector A to C. Vector A was
, while B was or . There was no real math behind this. This scalar
was just chosen and it turned out perfectly while the previous scalar was planned as a way of
assisting in creating orthogonal vectors.