Addition of Vectors Using

Parallelogram Method
•Before
  tackling the parallelogram method for solving resultant
vectors, you should be comfortable with the following topics.
1. SOHCAHTOA (basic sine, cosine, tangent)
2. Law of Cosines

3. Law of Sine
PROPERTIES OF A PARALLELOGRAM:

1. opposite sides of parallelograms are

congruent
2. opposite angles of the parallelograms
are congruent
Example:
• To best understand how the parallelogram method works, lets examine the two vectors
below. The vectors have magnitudes of 17 and 28 and the angle between them is 66
degrees. Our goal is to use the parallelogram method to determine the magnitude of the
resultant.

N
17
a=
66

b =28 N
• Draw a parallelogram based on the two vectors that you already have.
These vectors will be two sides of the parallelogram.

b=28 N

66
N
17

N
a=

17
a=
66

b=28 N
Look for the other pair of angle.

Note that the sum of all

b=28 N
the angles in a
parallelogram is equal
c 66
to 360.
N

Therefore,
17

N
a=

17
c + c + 66 + 66 = 360

a=
2c + 132 = 360
66 c
c= 114 degrees
b =28 N
 Draw a diagonal between the parallelogram. The diagonal is the RESULTANT
VECTOR.
The diagonal “C” is the resultant.
 
b=28 N

4
11 66
N
17

N
c
a=

17
c= or 38.2

a=
66 11
4

b=28 N
 • Use the sine law to find the angle of the resultant
 

C=

N
17
A= 23.97989963

a=
A = ?
114 Final answer: 38.21 @ 23.98
  =
C
degrees