Chapter 3
VECTORS
Physical Quantities
Vector Quantities Scalar Quantities
magnitude + direction magnitude Without
direction
Velocity, Speed, distance,
displacement, mass, work, ...
acceleration, force, ..
Components of Vectors
• Resolving the vector is the process of finding the components
• Component is the projection of the vector on an axis
x
• Writing a vector in magnitude- angle
notation
Magnitude Angle (Direction)
y
• Finding the components. • Writing a vector in magnitude-
angle notation
Rem : When use these formulas to find the components,
the angle must be measured from positive X-axis, if
clockwise put θ -ve if counterclockwise put θ +ve.
Unit Vectors
• Unit vector is a vector of magnitude 1 and points in a particular
direction
Vector Components
• Writing a vector in Unit vector notation
• Example: A vector has a magnitude of 5 units makes 530
with a positive x-axis.
(a) The y-component (vertical component) is
(b) The x-component (horizontal component) is
• Example: A vector has a magnitude of 10 units makes 300
with a positive y-axis.
(a) The y-component (vertical component) is
(b) The x-component (horizontal component) is
Example: Find the angle θ which vector A = 3 i + 4 j makes with
the positive x-axis is
Ref. above example, find the magnitude of vector A.
Ref. above example, the horizontal component is
Ref. above example, the vertical component is
Adding and subtracting vectors by
Components
Example: Find A – 2 B for
Example: The magnitude of A = 2 i – 2 j + k is
Example: A car travels 6 km to South then turns 8 km to East. The
displacement vector and the magnitude of displacement in m is
Multiplying a vector by a vector
Scalar product Vector product
(or Dot product) (or cross product)
A.B AxB
will produce a will produce a new
scalar vector
Scalar (or Dot product)
If the two vectors are given in magnitude If the two vectors are given in
and the angle between them unit vector notation
a
θ
b
a . b = |a| |b| cosθ
1- The scalar product is commutative
2- If the two vectors are parallel
3- If the two vectors are perpendicular
4- If the two vectors are Antiparallel
5- If A = c B, c is real positive number, then θ = 0
6- If A = - c B , c is real positive number, then θ = 1800
• Example: The scalar product of two vectors A = 4 i – 3 j + 5 k
and B = 3 i – 2 j + k is:
• Soln:
• Example: Ref. above example, the angle enclosed between
A and B is
Example: What is the scalar product of two vectors A = 2 i – 2 j + k
and |B| = 6 units if the angle enclosed between A and B is 370:
Soln:
Example: The vector A = 4 i – 3 j and the magnitude of B is 4 units.
If A . B =15 units then the angle enclosed between A and B is
Vector (or Cross product)
If the two vectors are given in magnitude If the two vectors are given in
and angle between them unit vector notation
The direction of the result vector
Example: The cross product of two vectors A = 2 i – 2 j + k and |B| = 6
units if the angle enclosed between A and B is 370:
Soln: