Answer: In physics, when you break a vector into its parts, those parts are called its components. For example, in the vector (4, 1), the x-axis (horizontal) component is 4, and the y-axis (vertical) component is 1. Typically, a physics problem gives you an angle and a magnitude to define a vector; you have to find the components yourself using a little trigonometry.
Suppose you know that a ball is rolling on a flat table at 15 degrees from a direction parallel to the bottom edge at a speed of 7.0 meters/second. You may want to find out how long the ball will take to roll off the edge 1.0 meter to the right.
Define your axes so the ball is at the origin initially and the x-axis is parallel to the bottom edge of the table (refer to the figure). Therefore, the problem breaks down to finding out how long the ball will take to roll 1.0 meter in the x direction. To find the time, you first need to know how fast the ball is moving in the x direction.