Notes: Vectors and Scalars

A particle moving along a straight line can move in only two directions and we can specify
which directions with a plus or negative sign.

For a particle moving in three dimensions; however, a plus sign or minus sign is no longer
enough to indicate a direction, we must use a vector.

What is a vector?
An object that has both magnitude and direction.

Ok, so what is magnitude?

Mathematically, it is the absolute value. Really it is the size or length of something.
If you say your drove 4 km, it doesnt matter if it was +4 km or 4 km, the magnitude is 4
km. You drove 4 km.

What is direction?
If on a single axis, we say that from the objects original position to the objects final position,
can be represented by a plus sign or a minus sign.

So what about when we are not talking about 1-D, but two or three dimensions?
We use terminology such as North, South, East, West, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and
Southwest.
However, mathematically, it easier to describe it with angles such as 30 above the xaxis.

What are examples of vectors?

Displacement, velocity, acceleration, force

Obviously, not all substance are vectors e.g. not all substances have direction, so what are
substances without a direction called? Scalars.

Scalar substances without direction.

What are some examples of some substances with only magnitude and no direction?
Temperature, pressure, energy, mass, and time.

(COMPONENTS OF A VECTOR)

Notes: Vectors and Scalars

A component of a vector is the projection of the vector on an axis; that is,

the part of the vector that translates to three-dimensional space.

The process of finding the components of a vectors is called resolving the

vector.

So as in the image, we have a vector on an x-y plane:

We can break it into component by:

Basically, we have a component of the vector

called

on the x-axis that is

d x , and a component of it on the y-axis that is called

dy .

Looking at the diagram above, we see that essentially the vector

its components form a triangle. This allows us to use trigonometry to

create some basic formulas for describing a vector.

Recall that:
cos=

adjacent
hypotenuse

and

Notes: Vectors and Scalars

sin =

opposite
hypotenuse

tan=

opposite
adjacent

We can find
using

cos=

dx

(that is, the amount of vector

on the x-axis) by

cos

dx
d

This can be better written as the formula for

dx

as:

d x =dcos

Similarly, we can find

axis) by using

sin =

dy

(that is, the amount of vector

on the y-

sin

dy
d

This can be better written as the formula for

dy

as:

d y =dsin

So, the two above highlighted equations will give you the components of a
vector.

Notes: Vectors and Scalars

However, what if we know the components of a vector, but not the

magnitude of the vector or direction.

Look back at the graph above, we have a triangle. Our magnitude is just
the distance of the hypotenuse. So what equation can we use to find the
hypotenuse? The Pythagorean theorem. So to find the magnitude of a
vector, we use this formula:
d= d 2x + d 2y

As we already know by now, a vector has both magnitude and direction.

We just found the formula for finding the magnitude, now how do we find
the direction (angle)?
We use
tan=

tan

to find the angle of a vector:

dy
dx

(UNIT-VECTOR NOTATION)
Unit vector a vector that has a magnitude of exactly 1 and points in a
particular direction. It lacks both dimension and unit. Its sole purpose is to
point that is, to specify direction.

The unit vectors in the positive direction of the x, y, and z axes are

labeled i, j ,k . That is:

i=xaxisxdirection .
j= yaxis ydirection .
k =zaxisz direction .

Notes: Vectors and Scalars

Unit vectors are very useful for expressing other vectors for instance:

Where i and j are the vector components, and

scalar components of vector

ax

and

ay

a .

(ADDING VECTORS BY COMPONENTS)

To add vectors, we can add their components axis by axis. Take

r =a + b

We can rewrite this as:

r =(
a x + a y +
a z )+( bx + b y +
bz )

are the

Notes: Vectors and Scalars

r =(
a x + b x ) i +(
a y + b y ) j+(
az +
b z ) k

Where,

r =
r x i +
r y j+ rz k

r x =a x + bx
r y =a y +b y
r z=a z +b z

Product of Vectors:

- Let i , j , k be unit vectors in the x, y, and z directions. Then:

i i =j j=k k=1

and

i j= j k =k i =0

Meaning that only vectors in the same direction can be multiplied

together whereas if they are in opposite direction than they cancel out.
(ADDING VECTORS GEOMETRICALLY)
Resultant vector (or vector sum) the sum of two vectors that create
another vector.

To add two-dimensional vectors together geometrically:

(1)Sketch a vector

to some convenient scale and at the proper angle.

(2)Sketch a vector

to the same scale, with its tail at the head of

vectors

a , again at the proper angle

Notes: Vectors and Scalars

(3)The vector sum s

the head of b .

is the vector that extends from the tail of

to

Many of the same laws that you encountered in algebra, apply in the
same way to vectors.
Commutative law states that the order of addition does not matter.

Adding vector a to vector b gives to same result as adding vector

b
to vector a .

Associative law is an extension of the commutative law to more than

two vectors by stating that the order of addition does not matter for

vectors a , b , and c .

Vector Subtraction states that if you have a vector b than it has the

same magnitude as vector b except it is in the opposite direction.

NOTE: Although we have used displacement vectors here, the rules for
addition and subtraction hold for vectors of all kinds, whether they
represent velocities, accelerations, or any other vector quantity.
(MULTIPLYING VECTORS)

Three ways in which vectors can be multiplied:

1. Multiplying a Vector by a Scalar

Notes: Vectors and Scalars

2. Dot Product (Multiplying a Vector by a Vector)
3. Cross Product (Multiplying a Vector by a Vector)
(1)Multiplying a Vector by a Scalar:
If we multiply a vector

by a scalar s, we get a new vector. The new

vectors magnitude is the product of the magnitude of vector

and the

absolute value of scalar s. The new vectors direction is the direction of

vector a if scalar s is positive unless scalar s is negative then the new
vectors direction is negative.
Let s be the scalar and let
the scalar and the vector

be a vector. Let

be the vector when

are multiplied together.

d =s a

(2)The Scalar Product (Dot Product):

The Scalar Product that is most often called the dot product is one of the
ways to multiply a vector by another vector which is to say to multiply a
quantity that has a magnitude and a direction ( a by another quantity
that has a magnitude and a direction (

Where,

b
).

is the angle between the two vectors.

IMPORTANT NOTE: There are actually two such angles when two vectors are
multiplied together.
and (360-)

Either angle can be used in the dot product because their cosines are
the same but this is not true for the cross product or anytime you have
the sine of something.

Dot Product produces a scalar product and not another vector i.e. when
two vectors or multiplied together by the dot product, they produce a
quantity with only a magnitude and not a direction.

Notes: Vectors and Scalars

A dot product can be regarded as the product of two quantities:

1. The magnitude of one of the vectors.
2. The scalar component of the second vector along the first vector.

(3)The Vector Product (Cross Product):

Notes: Vectors and Scalars

The Vector Product is commonly called the Cross Product. It is when you
multiply two vectors together to produce another vector. Note that the
word multiply is used loosely because it is different than how you typically
accustomed to multiplying. Essentially it is when a vector ( a )

encounters another vector ( b

to create a new vector ( c

that has

both a magnitude and a direction. That is:

c =a x b =absin

| ||

i j k
i j k i
c =a x b= a x a y a z = a x a y a z ax
b x b y b z b x b y b z bx

j
ay
by

( a y b za z b y ) i + ( az b x ax b z ) j+ ( a x b y a y b x ) k

is the small of the two angles between vector ( a ) and vector ( b );

this is because sin

and sin(360- ) differ in algebraic sign.

The direction of vector

(which is the vector created from crossing

vector

and vector

b
) is perpendicular to the plane that contains

vector

and vector

b
.

EXAMPLE PROBLEM 1:

A small airplane leaves an airport on an overcast day and is sighted 215 km away, in a
direction making an angle of 22 East of due North.
How far east is the airplane from the airport when sighted?

Notes: Vectors and Scalars

How far north is the airplane from the airport when sighted?
STEP 1: The first part to solving physics problems and any work problem is to pick out what
relevant and irrelevant data you have in a problem. So ask yourself, what do we know so
far?
We have a number that 215 km, but what is that number? It is the magnitude of the
displacement vector (look at graph). So, we can say that d = 215 km.
We also have an angle that is 22 east of due north. What does that mean? Well if you
recall a unit circle where the y-axis is 90 and is pointing straight up, the same direction
as North, we can call that our north direction. Similarly, east would be heading to the right.
So basically the is 22 east of due north says that we start at north and we head east. So
we are 22 degrees off the y-axis.

So as you can see, we end up with an angle that is =90 22 =68 .

Now we break the vector down into its components.

Notes: Vectors and Scalars