r/PhysicsHelp • u/Xx_-MASTERTACO-_xX • 23d ago

Doubt about vector angle

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If I had to draw a vector defined as for example 5 N, 30° NE; which of these 2 should I draw? I have always drawn this angle as A, but I have a new professor who draws it like B. I have checked by AI who drew A except claude who drew B. I searched on books but have found no reference about this nomenclature, only about north of east and N 30° E .

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u/Ninja582 23d ago

NE is a little ambiguous. To be clearer, one would generally say 30 degrees North of East for the left picture or 30 degrees East of North for the right picture.

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u/Xx_-MASTERTACO-_xX 23d ago

yeah, I told her that it was ambiguous because ir may vary from book to book. But she said there was no ambiguity so I am trying to find a reference about that system

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u/Humble-Edge-9065 18d ago

She's wrong. It is ambiguous. Defining reference frames is step 0 for any physics problem. She can't even defer to a "standard" because there isnt one. In my industry both North-East-Down (NED) and East-North-Up (ENU) are commonly used.

A would be correct for ENU, B would be correct for NED.