Object Details
- Baker, Richard P.
- Description
- This painted wire model is one of several hundred designed by Richard P. Baker, a British-born mathematics professor at the University of Iowa. It illustrates the addition of vectors - quantities that have both magnitude and direction. Vectors are commonly associated with such physical variables as velocity and force, and have been used under that name from the late nineteenth century.
- To find the sum of two vectors, one commonly places them head to tail, as in this model. The sum is represented by the magnitude and direction of the vector joining the tail of the first vector to the head of the second. As the order in which vectors are added doesn't matter, a parallelogram represents two ways of finding the sum, tie the diagonal of the parallelogram representing the sum itself.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of Frances E. Baker
- ca 1906-1935
- ID Number
- MA.211257.085
- catalog number
- 211257.085
- accession number
- 211257
- Object Name
- geometric model
- Physical Description
- metal (overall material)
- red (overall color)
- black (overall color)
- blue (overall color)
- white (overall color)
- soldered. (overall production method/technique)
- Measurements
- average spatial: .1 cm x 14.4 cm x 9.4 cm; 1/32 in x 5 21/32 in x 3 11/16 in
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Science & Mathematics
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Mathematics
- Record ID
- nmah_1087048
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a9-4bf5-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
