   vectors and direct x
  I want to use a vector to animate a ball in a breakout game.I am unsure of how to start.   
  There's really nothing that can be said here, except do a google search on Vectors and read up on them. Presuming you already know about them, then you likely already know enough to get started.   ;  i have been doing some research on how to manipulate vectors using algebra. I want to animate a braakout ball using vector algebra.   ;  Vectors represent a direction and potentially distance from "Here" to "There". If the vector is independent of time, it can easily represent a position. If the vector is time-dependent, it can easily represent a velocity. A TimeStep is the amount of time since the last loop.P = PositionV = VelocityTs = TimeStepNow, given all that, what you need to do is figure out the change in position per timestep.I'm not going to give you more than that. This is literally juinor high math at best - And working through it yourself will only be to your benefit....Er, if you were asking about brick-sphere intersection, that's an entirely different topic and I will give you the code for that, as, if you're just starting to study vectors, it's well above your level.Note: Not my code, either - I got it off the internet years ago. Works perfectly, though, and comes with highly explanatory comments.  public static bool IntersectionSphereXAABB(ref Vector2 centerA, ref double radiusA, ref Vector2 centerB, ref Vector2 halfSizeB)  { // Get the center of the sphere relative to the center of the box Vector2 sphereCenterRelBox = centerA - centerB; // Point on surface of box that is closest to the center of the sphere Vector2 boxPoint = Vector2.Zero; // Check sphere center against box along the X axis alone.  // If the sphere is off past the left edge of the box,  // then the left edge is closest to the this.  // Similar if it's past the right edge. If it's between  // the left and right edges, then the sphere's own X  // is closest, because that makes the X distance 0,  // and you can't get much closer than that :) if (sphereCenterRelBox.X < -halfSizeB.X)boxPoint.X = -halfSizeB.X; else if (sphereCenterRelBox.X > halfSizeB.X)boxPoint.X = halfSizeB.X; elseboxPoint.X = sphereCenterRelBox.X; // ...same for Y axis if (sphereCenterRelBox.Y < -halfSizeB.Y)boxPoint.Y = -halfSizeB.Y; else if (sphereCenterRelBox.Y > halfSizeB.Y)boxPoint.Y = halfSizeB.Y; elseboxPoint.Y = sphereCenterRelBox.Y; // Now we have the closest point on the box, so get the distance from  // that to the sphere center, and see if it's less than the radius Vector2 dist = sphereCenterRelBox - boxPoint; return (dist.X * dist.X + dist.Y * dist.Y <= radiusA * radiusA);  };  thanks alot, I am brushing up on my linear algebra.   