What is the difference between Magnitude and Direction in quantities?
What is the difference between Magnitude and Direction in quantities?
Magnitude answers “how much?” and direction answers “which way?”. For example, 5 meters is a magnitude, North is a direction. 5 meters north is a vector quantity, which has both magnitude and direction. Direction matters for some quantities in physics (called vector quantities), but not others (called scalar quantities).
For example, if a friend is having a party, and you want directions, being told 5 miles isn’t going to help you find the party, you need to know which direction to travel as well. Conversely, if you are bringing juice to the party and she says to bring 10 bottles, that’s all the info you need, amount of juice doesn’t need a direction.
Hope you have understood the difference.
Magnitude answers “how much?” and direction answers “which way?”. For example, 5 meters is a magnitude, North is a direction. 5 meters north is a vector quantity, which has both magnitude and direction. Direction matters for some quantities in physics (called vector quantities), but not others (called scalar quantities).
For example, if a friend is having a party, and you want directions, being told 5 miles isn’t going to help you find the party, you need to know which direction to travel as well. Conversely, if you are bringing juice to the party and she says to bring 10 bottles, that’s all the info you need, amount of juice doesn’t need a direction.
Hope you have understood the difference.
