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VECTORS

Inphysics,wecharacterizephysicalquantitiesbasedofftheir
magnitude
(size)and
whetherornottheyhaveaspecifieddirection.A
scalar
isanyquantitythatischaracterizedby
itsmagnitudealone.Someexamplesofscalarquantitiesarelength,speed,mass,and
temperature.Sincescalarsarefullydefinedbytheirmagnitude,wecansimplyrepresentthemas
numbers(withappropriateunits).Forinstance,ifwewereaskedthelengthofafootballfield,
youwouldbeinclinedtoanswer:100yards.Youwouldnever,however,answer100yardsnorth,
becausescalarsaredefinedonlybytheirmagnitudeandnotbytheirdirection.Bycontrast,a
vector
isanyquantitythatisdefinedbothbyitsmagnitude
and
direction.Anexampleofa
vectorquantityisdisplacement(changeinpositionbetweentwolocations).Ifonewereaskedfor
thedisplacementfromHonolulutotheNorthShore,youmightsayapproximately24miles
northnorthwest.Sincedisplacementdescribesthelocationofoneobjectrelativetoanother,the
directionmustbespecified,thusitisavectorquantity.
Sincevectorsarespecifiedbybothmagnitudeanddirection,aconvenientwayto
graphicallyrepresentvectorsisbydrawinganarrow:

Asyoudelvedeeperintophysics,youwillcometorealizethatvectorsareindispensabletools
fordescribingphysicalsystems,thuswemustlearnhowtoperformvectoroperations
particularly,howtoaddandsubtractvectors.Inthisactivity,wewillfocusonthreemethodsof
vectoraddition:graphicaladdition,componentwiseaddition,andthetrianglemethod.

GraphicalVectorAddition:

Givenvectors A and B (wealwayswritevariableswithanarrowontopwhendenotingvector

quantities),wecantaketheirsum A + B ,byrearrangingthevectorssotheypointheadtotail

Phys151L:Group1,Section____

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Thefigureaboveshowsvector B beingtranslatedsothatitstailmatchesupwiththeheadof

vector A .Youcouldalsoequivalentlykeep B fixedontheimagetotheleftandmovetranslate

A sothatitstailmeetstheheadof B .Ifyouweretodothat,youwouldfindthat A + B is

equivalentinbothcases.Weoftensay A + B = R ,andcallthevectorsum, R ,the

resultant
vector
.

Practice:
Inthespacebelow,rearrangethevectorssothattheyarepointedheadtotail,anddrawthe
resultantvector(vectorsum)foreachofthefollowingconfigurationsofvectors:
1.
2.

3.
4.

ComponentMethod:
Thegraphicalmethodofaddingvectorsishelpfulinthesensethatitcangiveyouintuition
towardthemagnitudeanddirectionoftheresultantvector,howeveritisnotaverygoodmethod
forvectoraddition,astheaccuracyofitislimitedtotheprecisionofthedevicesusedtomeasure
thelengthsofthevectorsandtheanglesbetweenthem.Amoreusefulmethodiscalledthe
componentmethod
,wherewesumanynumberofvectorsbysplittingthemupinto
perpendicularcomponents:

Phys151L:Group1,Section____

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Thefiguretotheleftshowsavector A andits
components, Ax and Ay .Afewusefulbitsof
terminology:

Themagnitudeof A ischaracterizedbyitslength

andisdenotedeitherby |A| orby A (themagnitudeofa

vectorisascalarquantity).
isusedtocharacterizethedirectionofthe
vectorwithrespecttoanaxis.Forinstanceif = 60o ,

wewouldsaythat A points 60o abovethehorizontal,

becauseitsangleis 60o abovethehorizontalline.
Ax iscalledthevectors
horizontalcomponent
,
asitpointsalongthehorizontalaxis,and Ay iscalledthe
vectors
verticalcomponent
.
Since Ax and Ay aredefinedtobeperpendicular

tooneanother,weseethat A , Ax ,and Ay formaright

triangle,sowecanuserighttriangletrigonometryand
thePythagoreantheoremtocompute A , Ax , Ay ,and .

Example:
Inthefigureabove,suppose A representsavelocityvectorofmagnitude24m/s.

pointingata 30o angleabovethehorizontal.Findthehorizontalandverticalcomponentsof A .

Nowthatyouveseenhowwecansplitupavectorintohorizontalandverticalcomponents,lets
discusshowwecanusethesecomponentstoaddupmultiplevectors.Thefigureonthenext
pageshowsthreevectorsandtheircomponents:

Phys151L:Group1,Section____

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Suppose A = 60o and C = 30o (figure

notdrawntoscale).Usethemethodof
componentstofindthecomponentsof

theresultantvector R (sincethereare

threevectors, R = A + B + C ).Once

youvefoundthecomponents,sketch R
(startingattheorigin)onthediagram.

TriangleMethod
Wecanalsocompute R fromthelawof

cosinesusingthemagnitudeofvectors A , B ,
andtheanglebetweenthem, .Whenall's
saidanddone,theansweryouobtainusing
thismethodisthesameaswhatyouwouldget
usingthecomponentmethod,soreallyitisa
matterofpreferenceastowhichmethodyou
use(ingeneralIpreferthemethodof
componentsandrarelyusethismethod).In
anycase,referringtothefiguretotheright,
thelawofcosinestellsus
R2 = A2 + B2 2AB cos(180o ) or

Phys151L:Group1,Section____

R2 = A2 + B2 + 2AB cos()

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(thiscomesfromthetrigidentity: cos(180o ) = cos() ).

Theangle between R and A canthenbecomputedusingthelawofsines:

B
sin

R
= sin(180
= sinR .
o
)

Example:
Let A = 4 N, B = 2 N,and = 60o .Find R and .

HomeworkExercises
Solveallproblemsinthespaceprovided.Pleaseclearlyshowallwork.Thesolutionstothese
problemswillcounttowardyourlabreportgradeforweek2.

1.Themagnitudeofthe y componentofavelocitythathasanangleof 27o tothe x axisis

2.8m/s.
a. Usingaprotractorandthescale1cm=1m/s,drawthisvectorinthespacebelow.
Determinethemagnitudeofthevelocityofthisvector.

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b. Whatisthemagnitudeofthe x componentofthisvelocity?

2.Theimagetotherightshowstwo

forcevectors, F 1 and F 2 .

a.Determinethemagnitudeand
direction(anglerelativetothepositive
x axis)oftheresultantvector.

b.Suppose F 1 wereatanangleof 27o tothexaxisinsteadof 37o .Keeping F 2 thesameasit

wasinpart(a),whatwouldbemagnitudeanddirectionof F 1 + F 2 ?