The arrow represents the vector R. Which diagram does not represent R as two perpendicular components?

Question 4

The arrow represents the vector R.

Which diagram does not represent R as two perpendicular components?

Reference: Past Exam Paper – June 2015 Paper 12 Q4

Solution:

Answer: C.

When facing such types of question, it is best to tackle it by drawing on the question paper itself.

The vector sum of the two perpendicular components should provide a resultant equal to the vector R shown.

By completing the diagram (by the parallelogram method, for example), we can observe that only choice C does not provide a resultant similar to the vector R shown. Instead, the resultant in C has a downward direction and thus, cannot be equal to the vector R shown.