The Mission Tour: An Exercise in Vector Addition
Map or Poster Technique

Adding Vectors Using a Ruler and a Protractor

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The yellow line represents the distance in which we are interested. The measurement from the San Buenaventura Mission to the Mission in Santa Barbara is 2.5 centimeters. Convert this to miles. The map used in this example has a scale of 2.0 cm = 20 miles. If you would like to measure the distance between Missions on the previous page, place a sheet of acetate over the monitor to protect it, and mark the sheet with a marker. This distance is about 4.2 centimeters on my monitor. Now we have a scale with which to make a ratio. (Will this value vary from machine to machine? window to window?) If you wish to use the "Road Map", place a sheet over the monitor to protect it and mark the sheet with a marker. This time, the distance is 7.5 cm. All these distances convert to the same 'real' distance because the scale for each map is different.

Measure an angle which will be useful in determining the bearing of this directed line segment.

Take a ruler measurement from Santa Barbara Mission to Santa Ines Mission. Is this about 3.8 centimeters? Again, will this value vary from machine to machine? (or map to map?) Convert this length to miles and measure the bearing for this directed line segment.

When this is complete, we will have the vectors from San Buenaventura to Santa Barbara and from Santa Barbara to Santa Ines.

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