School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Sydney
 3. Addition and subtraction of vectors
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The head-minus-tail rule

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Given a vector -AB--> and any point O, the triangle rule for addition shows us that ----> OB = ---> OA + ---> AB. We can rewrite this equation as

---> ----> ---> AB = OB - OA

Since ----> OB points to the head of the vector - --> AB and ---> OA points to its tail, we call this the “head-minus-tail” rule.

B A O

The advantage of this rule is that it allows us to rewrite all the vectors occurring in a problem as combinations of vectors emanating from a given point O (often called the origin).

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