Math Sl students are learning how to describe a line with vectors. This is a powerful concept in graphics design and software development, and sometimes it’s just fun.

Conventional graphics are described as a series of pixels… if you zoom in to the image, the resolution distorts and the pixelation is obvious. However, graphics described by vectors can be recalculated and redrawn at any resolution through scaling and thus never become pixelated.

In our picture, each student represents a vector, in turn referencing a point on a line. Each vector can be described in terms position vector a and the direction vector b. Thus David is a, Andee is a + b, and Isaac is a + 2b.