Force is a vector. What then is a vector? Think about how you would give directions to a friend. You would not say, just walk half a mile. The person may walk a half mile in the wrong direction! More information is needed. You may say, follow this particular road for a half mile. You may say, look for the green house on Sumter St. In both examples, you provided a direction. You also gave the distance. In other words, you provided a vector. You did not just give a distance. Both pieces of information are needed to find a location. This is just like describing forces. To explain forces, both size and direction are needed. Notice the girl in Figure 1.1. She is pushing the swing away from herself. Thats the direction of the force. She can give the swing a strong push or a weak push.

How far is the green house on Sumter St.?

Peter was a very sad puppy. He had been inside of the pet store for a very long time. In fact, he had been there for three months! Peter had seen many other puppies find a person; he began to wonder why he could not get one. He thought that maybe his fur was not pretty enough or maybe his bark was not loud enough. He tried and tried to please every person who came to the store, but they all picked smaller puppies. However, one day all of this changed. Sammie came into the store looking for a golden puppy. She wanted a puppy she could snuggle with. It so happened that Peter was very sad and tired that day. Sammie came to hold him. Peter wanted to show off his bark, but he was too tired. He fell right to sleep. Sammie loved him at once and loved holding him in her arms. Sammie took Peter home that day, and they made lots of fun memories.

Why was Peter sad?

Search "Emiliano Malaquez" and you'll find he's a master of the "captured moment" school of sculpture. Even The Terran Times has only praise for his work. To compare his pieces to those of others is to compare mannequins to living models. He accents the illusion of reality --I paraphrase his entry in La Enciclopedia Humanica --by doing life-size scenes in "The full round," never the easier frontal or three-quarters view. Moreover, he never did portraits of famous people; his works were therefore the reality and could never be compared to it. As is typical of his school, his pieces are sealed in stopboxes. The shimmer of light on their surfaces always reminds us that we're looking at an instant snatched from under the hooves of time. They say the cubes will outlast planets and suns, that when the universe dies, the works of Malaquez and his followers will be the last things seen in the final wink of God's eye. Yes, Self, I am also bothered that this observation ignores half-eaten cheese sandwiches, incomplete insect collections, and locks of infants' hair, forgotten in closets, basements, and warehouses. You see the inspiration for my latest play, "Captured Moments." The mindwipe will take its creation from my future self --but time too often does that without aid. The play's second act concludes with the last fight between Tasha and me. I have disguised us in the play, and deleted one brief melodramatic interchange. Now I will mention it, in case I/You decide to restore it. Shortly before she left, Tasha said, "You steal from life for art, Bernardo. You'll impoverish yourself." I only snarled at her and -- My story leaps ahead of itself. Let me retreat and retrench: One night during N'apulco's mild winter, Tasha returned to The Flamingo, saying, "Nardo! Nardo! Guess what?"
What do Tasha and Bernardo fight about?