Model of Vector Addition by Richard P. Baker, Baker #433
date: label: date made
content: ca 1906-1935
name: label: maker
content: Baker, Richard P.
notes: label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Frances E. Baker
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.211257.085
label: catalog number
content: 211257.085
label: accession number
content: 211257
objectType: label: Object Name
content: geometric model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: red (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: black (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: blue (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: white (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: soldered. (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: 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