Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

M1 - Vectors

I have spent over 2 hours of attempting this question, reviewing online guides, forums, solutions etc, and the only conclusion I've come to is that I really have no idea what I'm doing.

The question is this: http://imgur.com/lF7JA6g

I have absolutely no idea where to start or what to do, but after pages and pages of failed attempts I'm tearing my hair out.

Help, please?

0163325d19522f187b7f020f41a238fa49c6fcddf5.jpg81.3KB

Reply 1

brianeverit

Original post by Kalia_

Get the position vectors of M and Q in terms of a and c, then get the vector equations of MQ and AC and solve simultaneously.

Reply 2

Kalia_

Original post by brianeverit

Get the position vectors of M and Q in terms of a and c, then get the vector equations of MQ and AC and solve simultaneously.

I have no idea what a position vector or a vector equation is, or how you would go about finding them, sorry. :frown:

As I said before, I have no idea what I'm doing, this question is in the very first exercise of the topic and I've never encountered vectors before.

Reply 3

m4ths/maths247

Original post by Kalia_

I have no idea what a position vector or a vector equation is, or how you would go about finding them, sorry. :frown:

As I said before, I have no idea what I'm doing, this question is in the very first exercise of the topic and I've never encountered vectors before.

Ok, did you do GCSE maths?
Vectors will come up in that course.
Section 19 below will help:
http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mepres/allgcse/allgcse.htm

From memory I used similar triangles when teaching Edexcel M1 last year.
If I am going to be 100% honest the question serves no great purpose in M1 but its a lovely piece of maths to be enjoyed regardless.

Reply 4

Kalia_

Original post by m4ths/maths247

Ok, did you do GCSE maths?
Vectors will come up in that course.
Section 19 below will help:
http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mepres/allgcse/allgcse.htm

Thanks for the link, gonna have a read through and take notes - I honestly have no memory of ever having seen vectors before but I suppose I did them!

Original post by m4ths/maths247

From memory I used similar triangles when teaching Edexcel M1 last year.
If I am going to be 100% honest the question serves no great purpose in M1 but its a lovely piece of maths to be enjoyed regardless

If you say it's not important as a key topic or anything, I think I'll leave it - I was panicking because so far I've been fine with all the questions and then suddenly this one totally throws me... so that puts me at ease a bit, thanks. :smile:

Reply 5

m4ths/maths247

You can build knowledge or follow rules and algorithms when studying maths.
I always think its better to get and understanding of what is going on here. It will help if you decide to do C4 too.

Reply 6

davros

Original post by Kalia_

If you say it's not important as a key topic or anything, I think I'll leave it

Vectors are very important in Mechanics!

The point that the previous poster was making was that this question isn't really an M1 question - it's testing your basic knowledge of vectors, not any underlying mechanical principles.

So you should still try to solve this question - you will find the technique useful in other work.