What this pack is, and what it is not
The IB guide asks for these techniques to be practised inside the topics that need them, so this is not a taught unit of the course and does not claim to be one. It is reference and remedial material for a technique nearly every two-dimensional problem assumes: it supplements integrated teaching rather than replacing it. It earns its place wherever a class handles projectiles well and then loses marks on an inclined plane, and again as revision for a student who is losing marks on the trigonometry rather than on the physics.

This pack is worked, not taught: the 185 minutes quoted is student working time across the practice bank, not classroom delivery time. Set it as homework and practice rather than as a timed classroom activity.

What students learn
A pair of components replaces the vector.
The component adjacent to the angle takes the cosine.
Perpendicular directions that are not horizontal and vertical.
Angles that have to be worked out before any resolving.
Putting the components back together.
Reading components off a scaled grid.

IB skills this pack teaches and practises
Resolving a vector into two perpendicular components (taught).
Carrying out calculations involving trigonometric ratios (practised).
Adding and subtracting vectors in the same plane (practised).
Drawing and labelling a vector, with its magnitude, point of application and direction (practised once, and stated exactly).
Using a scale diagram, and constructing components on one (practised).

What’s in the pack
Student Worksheet (27 pages)
Teacher Key (37 pages)
The editable worksheet

Written against the IB DP Physics guide (first assessment 2025) at both Standard and Higher Level; the technique is common to the two, so one pack serves a mixed class. It declares no topic and no understanding, deliberately: resolving a vector belongs to the IB skills in the study of physics (Tool 3: Mathematics) rather than to any one syllabus topic, which is exactly why so many topics assume it and none of them owns it. SI units and IB notation are used throughout, the data booklet’s vectors entry is redrawn as the first figure so the pack’s symbols and the booklet’s are matched openly, and IB command terms (calculate, determine, state, predict, suggest, outline, explain) are used as an examiner uses them. Suitable for ages 16 to 19 as homework, as reference before the first inclined-plane problem, as remedial support for a student losing marks on technique, or as revision before the examinations. Three companion skill packs cover the numerical groundwork the course assumes alongside it, scientific notation and SI prefixes, significant figures and rounding, and unit conversion, and all three are free to download.