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AS 9702 · 1.4 · Physical quantities and units · Lesson bundle

Scalars and vectors

The toolkit the whole of mechanics relies on, made lesson-ready: tell a scalar from a vector, add vectors tip to tail, resolve into perpendicular components, and find a resultant by Pythagoras and the tangent ratio. Plan, worksheet with answers, slides, and a Think-Pair-Share activity with a full facilitation guide, built around the component triangle and the site simulation Adding and Resolving Vectors.

Syllabus
9702, 1.4
Level
AS
Duration
60 minutes
Activity
Think-Pair-Share
Core visual
The component triangle
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View or download

Every part, two ways

Each part of the bundle opens right here on the site, projectable in any browser, and downloads as an editable file, never a locked PDF. Adapt them to your set, your timing and your school's calendar.

View on site · or Word .docx

Lesson plan

The 60-minute plan, with adding and resolving vectors, the component method, two worked examples, examiner traps and differentiation.

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Worksheet and answers

Original AS questions across sorting, resolving, resultants of perpendicular vectors, combining by components and reasoning, with a full worked answer key.

Present on site · or PowerPoint .pptx

Slides

Your actual slides, presented right in the browser, with the live simulation linked beneath; the download is fully editable.

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21st century skills activity

Think-Pair-Share on three misconception-busting prompts, with the PIES rationale, a facilitation guide and full teacher notes and answers, so it runs faithfully.

The matching topic page and simulation

Send learners to the lesson online

This bundle pairs with the student topic page Scalars and vectors, which carries the interactive explanation, and with the site simulation Adding and Resolving Vectors, which lets learners drag vectors, resolve them and read off the resultant.

Open the topic page   Open the simulation

How it is built

Commit, then compare

Vector reasoning hides several misconceptions: that two forces always add to their sum, that perpendicular vectors add directly, or that sine and cosine are interchangeable. The lesson surfaces these with the component triangle, then drills resolving and recombining until they are routine.

Think-Pair-Share makes every learner commit to a view in silence before any discussion, so the misconceptions come into the open and get argued out. The activity ships with three prompts and full teacher notes, so it can be run faithfully.

Original work by the TheLucidSTEM team. Questions are written in the style of the papers; no past paper question is reproduced. Supplied in editable formats so you can adapt them freely.
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