Physics Notes - Vector Notes #1

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So far we have been studying motion in one dimension. For example, a car on a straight road would be considered one dimensional because it can only go forward or backward.

However, we can all affirm we live in a world of more than one dimension. We can go forward, backward, up and down, and left or right. Before we proceed, however, we must define vector and scalar. Vector - anything that has magnitude and direction. Examples: Velocity, force, acceleration, displacement, etc Scalar - anything that has magnitude but no direction. Examples: Temperature, Mass, Energy, Time, etc With the vector defined, we will be able to do physics problems in more than one dimension. For example, imagine an airplane traveling to the North-East.

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Unlike the car example, the plane is traveling in two dimensions the xdirection and the y-direction. We call these two different directions the components. In this case, the components are of displacement, but components can be of acceleration, velocity, forces, and so on. We can see the plane travelled 14 km in the x-direction and 9 km in the y-direction. We say the plane has two components of displacement. We would write this as: Dx = 14 km Dy = 9 km

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We can easily see the plane went 14 km in the x-direction and 9 km in the y-direction. However, what is the total displacement of the plane? The total displacement is simply the magnitude, or more simply, the length of the vector. The magnitude can be found using the form of the Pythagorean theorem:

Example: Imagine you are walking with a horizontal velocity (Vx) at 3 m/s and a vertical velocity (Vy) of 4 m/s. What is your overall velocity?

Physics Notes - Adding Vectors

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Another powerful tool in physics is adding vectors. In component form, all one has to do is add all the xcomponents and the y-components. For example, take the familiar airplane example, but this time it changes directions three times resulting in four different paths.

Summary Table
X-Component Dx (Km) Y-Component Dy (Km) Distance of Path D (km)

Path 1 Path 2 Path 3 Path 4 Sum

3 1 4 6 14

3 4 0 -5 2 14.14

4.24 4.12 4.00 7.81 20.18

Overall Displacement (km):

Caution:

A common mistake is to assume the components of, say, path two is is Dx = 4 and Dy = 7. That is NOT correct. You are always looking for the difference. Path two, for example, begins at a horizontal distance of 3 and ends at a horizontal distance of 4. That is a change of horizontal distance of 1, thus Dx = 1 for path one. Likewise the change in vertical distance for path two is Dy = 4.

Explanation of the Summary Table The summary table shows the components of path one, two, three, and four. The distance of each path is calculated using the pythagorean theorem: The total displacement of the airplane is 14.14 km. This, again, was calculated using the pythagorean theorem with the summed components of Dx = 14 km. and Dy = 2 km. Notice the total distance travelled by the plane was 20.18 km, but the overall displacement (represented by the thick, gray vector) is only 14.14 km. Example: What is the overall displacement of an airplane that went 30 Km north, then 40 km west, and then 20 km to the east and 10 km to the south?

X-Component Dx (Km)

Y-Component Dy (Km)

Distance of Path D (km)

Path 1 Path 2 Path 3 Sum

0 -40 20 -20

30 0 -10 20

30.00 40.00 22.36 92.36 28.28

Overall Displacement (km):

Physics Notes - Parallelogram Method

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A simple way to add two vectors is the parallelogram method. Imagine we have two vectors and we wish to find their sum. This method involves no math, but instead we graphically draw the vector.

Steps: 1. Draw a parallel line to vector 1 2. Draw a parallel line to vector 2 3. Draw a vector from the base of vector 1 and vector 2 to the point where both parallel lines meet. Shown as the thick, black line. The thick vector line represents the resultant or the sum of vector 1 and vector 2. The longer this line is, the greater the magnitude.

Physics Notes - Finding Components

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We cannot always read off the values of components from a graph, but instead we must calculate them mathematically. To do this we require some simple trigonometry, namely the cosine and the sine functions. Usually, the horizontal and vertical components are given by: [1] [2]

For the problem above, we can calculate Dx and Dy by simply plugging some numbers into equation [1] and equation [2]. Note the distance is given by the magnitude of a 100 km.
If we use the pythagorean theorem to find the overall magnitude using Dx and Dy, we should re-obtain a 100 km.

Physics Works! Hoopla! If you would like to understand why cosine and sine are used please see the additional handout on the website, pfaphysics.com

Physics Notes - Projectiles

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Vectors allows us, as mentioned, to investigate problems in two dimensions. The prime example is projectile motion. An example of projectile motion is a basketball flying through the air, a catapult launching an object at a castle, or essentially anything else thrown. When we throw an object, we throw it at some initial velocity and it will arc through the air until finally it hits the ground. Below you will see a diagram of an object arcing through the air. Notice how the initial velocity is is broken down into Vx and Vy components. Note: Vo = Vi = Initial Velocity On the graph to the left you will see 7 positions of the projectile. Each position shows an overall velocity, Vx and Vy components. Position 1 - The Overall Velocity is high because it was just thrown, it has a high vertical velocity (Vy), and a small horizontal velocity (Vx). Position 2 - The acceleration due to gravity A = -g is slowing down the vertical velocity component (Vy) and thus the Vy vector is getting smaller. The horizontal component (Vx) remains the same. Position 3 - The acceleration due to gravity A = -g is still slowing down the vertical velocity component (Vy) and the vector is getting smaller. The horizontal component (Vx) remains the same. Position 4 - The projectile has reached as high as it can go and the vertical velocity component (Vy) is 0 m/s at this point. Notice, however, the horizontal velocity component (Vx) remains the same. Position 5 - Everything is now going to happen in reverse as it falls. While the horizontal component remains the same, the vertical component is now pointed downward and has regained magnitude. Position 6 - The horizontal velocity (Vx) component is still the same, but the vertical velocity component (Vy) is increasing in magnitude (getting longer).
Horizontal Direction:

Equations of Projectiles
Velocity Components

Overall Velocity

Vertical Direction:

Position 7 - The horizontal velocity (Vx) component is still the same, but the vertical velocity component (Vy) has grown to the same magnitude, but opposite direction as position one.

Xi represents an initial horizontal position Yi represents an initial vertical position