MODULE I

VECTOR OPERATIONS

Force Vectors
Lesson 1

Cartesian Vectors
Lesson 2
Position Vectors
Lesson 3

Force Vector Directed Along a Line

Lesson 4
 MODULE I

VECTOR OPERATIONS

 INTRODUCTION

This introductory module, present the basic concepts commonly used in the
analysis of forces. We start this chapter with a discussion of force vectors particularly in
vector operations namely addition of Cartesian vectors, position vectors, forces vector
directed along a line. We also have the dot and cross product.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After studying the module, you should be able to:

1. Determine the magnitude and direction of the resultant force.

2. Express the force as a Cartesian vector.
3. Solve the length of an object in space.
4. Determine the direction of a force specified by two points in space.

 DIRECTIONS/ MODULE ORGANIZER

There are four lessons in the module. Read each lesson carefully then answer the
exercises/activities to find out how much you have learned from it. Work on these
exercises/seatworks carefully and submit your output to our google classroom.

Good luck and happy reading!!!

Lesson 1

 Force Vectors

INTRODUCTION

 MECHANICS is a branch of the physical sciences that is concerned with the state
of rest or motion of bodies that are subjected to the action of forces.

 Rigid - Body Mechanics is divided into two areas; Statics and Dynamics

AREAS OF RIGID-BODY MECHANICS

 STATICS – Deals with the equilibrium of bodies, that is, those that are either at
rest or move with a constant velocity; whereas
 DYNAMICS – Is concerned with the accelerated motion of bodies.

What Is a particle?

 A particle has mass, but size that can be neglected.

 For example the size of the earth is insignificant compared to the size of its orbit
and therefore the earth can be modeled as a particle when studying its orbital
motion.

What is a Rigid Body?

 A rigid body can be considered as a combination of large number of particles in

which all the particles remains at a fixed distance from one another, both before
and after applying a load.

What is a Concentrated Force?

 A concentrated force represents the effect of a loading which is assumed to act at
a point on a body.
 SCALARS AND VECTORS

All physical quantities in engineering mechanics are measured using either scalars
or vectors.

 Scalar – A scalar is any positive or negative physical quantity that can be

completely specified by its magnitude. Examples of scalar quantities included
length, mass, and time.
 Vector – A vector is any physical quantity that requires both a magnitude and a
direction for its complete description. Examples of vectors encountered in statics
are force, position, and moment.

In the figure above, the length of the arrow represents the magnitude of the vector, and
the angle θ between the vector and fixed axis defines the direction of line of action. The
head or tip of the arrow indicates the sense of direction of the vector.

VECTOR OPERATIONS

Multiplication and Division of a Vector by a Scalar.

 If a vector is multiplied by a positive scalar, its magnitued increased by that
amount.
 When multiplied by negative scalar it will also change the directional sense of the
vector. Graphic examples of the operations are shown below.

Vector Addition
 All vector quantities obey the parallelogram law of addition.
 To illustrate the two component vectors A and B in figure below are added to form
a resultant vector R = A + B using the follwing procedure:
 • First join the tails of the components at a point so that it makes the
concurrent

• From the head of B draw a line parallel to A. Draw another line from the
head of A that is parallel to B. These two lines intersect at point P to form
the adjacent sides of a parallelogram.

• The diagonal of thos parallelogram that extends to P forms R, which then

represents the resultant vector R = A + B.

Vector Subtraction
 The resultant of the difference between two vectors A and B of the same type
may be expressed as

R’ = A – B = A + (-B)

 Subtraction therefore defined as a special case of addition, so the rules of vector

addition also apply to vector subtraction

VECTOR ADDITION OF FORCES

Finding a Resultant Force.

 The two component forces F1 and F2 acting on the pin in figure (a) can be added
together to form the resultant force
FR = F1 + F2 as shown in figure (b). From the construction, or using the triangle
rule in figure (c), we ca apply the law of cosines or law of sines to the triangle in
orer to obtain the magnitude of the resultant force and its direction.
Applications

Finding the Components of a Force.

 Sometimes it is necessary to resolve a force into two componets in order to study

its pulling or pushing effect in two specific directions.
 For example, in fig (a), F is to be resolved into two components along the two
members defined by the u and v axes.
• A parallelogram is constructed first by drawing lines starting from tip of F,
one line parallel to u and the other parallel to v. These lines then intersect
with the v and u axes, forming parallelogram.
• FU and FV are then established by simply joining the tail of F to the
intersection points on the u and v axes in fig (b).
• This can be reduced to a triangle which represents the triangle rule in fig
(c)
Application:
SAMPLE PROBLEMS

1. Determine the x and y components of F1 and F2 acting on the boom shown in

figure. Express each force as a Cartesian vector.

Solution:
Scalar Notation. Using the parallelogram law, F1 is resolve into x and y components,
fig (a). Since F1x acts in the -x direction, and F1y acts in the –y direction, we have

𝐹1𝑥 = −200𝑠𝑖𝑛300 𝑁 = −100 𝑁 = 100 𝑁 ←

𝐹1𝑦 = 200𝑐𝑜𝑠300 𝑁 = 173.205 𝑁 = 173.205 ↑

The force F2 is resolve into x and y components as shown in fig (c) using the slope of the
line.

12
𝐹2𝑥 = 260 𝑁 (13) = 240 𝑁 = 240 𝑁 →
5
𝐹2𝑦 = −260 𝑁 ( ) = −100 𝑁 = 100 𝑁 ↓
13
Cartesian Vector Notation. Having determined the magnitudes and directions of the
components of each force, we can express each force as a Cartesian vector.

F1 = {-100i + 173j} N Ans.

F2 = {240i – 100j} N Ans.

2. The link in figure is subjected to two forces F1 and F2. Determine the magnitude
and direction of the resultant force.

Solution 1:
Scalar Notation. First we resolve each force into x and y components, fig (b), then we
sum these components algebraically.

+
→ 𝐹𝑅𝑥 = ∑ 𝐹𝑥
𝐹𝑅𝑥 = 600𝑐𝑜𝑠300 𝑁 − 400𝑠𝑖𝑛450 𝑁
= 236.773 𝑁 →
+↑ 𝐹𝑅𝑦 = ∑ 𝐹𝑦
𝐹𝑅𝑦 = 600𝑠𝑖𝑛300 𝑁 + 400𝑐𝑜𝑠450 𝑁
= 582.843 𝑁 ↑

The resultant force shown in fig (c),

has a magnitude of

𝐹𝑅 = √(236.773 𝑁)2 + (582.843 𝑁)2

= 629.1 𝑁

Solution 2:
Cartesian Vector Notation. From the figure below, each force is first expressed as
Cartesian vector.

F1 = {600cos300i + 600sin300j} N
F2 = {-400sin450i + 400cos450j} N

Then,
FR = F1 + F2
FR=(600cos300i + 600sin300j) N + (-400sin450i + 400cos450j) N
FR = (600cos300N - 400sin450N)i + (600sin300N + 400cos450N)j
FR = {236.773i + 582.843j} N

3. The end of the boom O in figure below is subjected to three concurrent and
coplanar forces. Determine the magnitude and direction of the resultant force.
Solution:
Each force is resolved into its x and y components in fig (b).

Summing the x components we have.

+
→ 𝐹𝑅𝑥 = ∑ 𝐹𝑥
4
𝐹𝑅𝑥 = −400𝑁 + 250𝑠𝑖𝑛450 𝑁 − 200 ( ) 𝑁
5
= −383.223 𝑁
= 383.223 𝑁 ←
The negative sign indicates 𝐹𝑅𝑥 acts to the left.

Summing the y components yields,

+↑ 𝐹𝑅𝑦 = ∑ 𝐹𝑦
3
𝐹𝑅𝑦 = 250𝑐𝑜𝑠450 𝑁 + 200 ( ) 𝑁
5
= 296.777 𝑁 ↑
The resultant force shown in figure (c)

Has a magnitude of

𝐹𝑅 = √(−383.223 𝑁)2 + (296.777 𝑁)2

= 484.702 𝑁

The direction angle is,

 296.777
𝜃 = tan−1 ( )
383.223
= 37.7550