AMU Department of civil engineering

Chapter ONE
SCALAR AND VECTORS

1. INTRODUCTION
Mechanics: is a physical science which deals with the effect of forces on objects

Statics:-dealswith the equilibrium of bodies i.e those that are either at rest or move with a
constant velocity.

Dynamics is concerned with the accelerated motion of bodies and will be dealt in the next
Semester.
Idealizations or Models
There are three important idealizations used in mechanics in order to simplify application of the
theory.
Particle: a particle is a body whose dimension is negligible. In other words, a particle has
a mass, but a size that can be neglected.
Rigid Body:is a combination of a large number of particles in which all the particles
remain at a fixed distance from one another, both before and after applying a load.
Concentrated Force: A concentrated force represents the effect of a loading which is
assumed to act at a point on a body.

1.2. Scalars and Vectors

Scalar quantities: are physical quantities that can be completely described (measured) by their
magnitude alone. These quantities do not need a direction to point out their application (Just a
value to quantify their measurability). They only need the magnitude and the unit of
measurement to fully describe them.

Examples: Time[s], Mass [Kg], Area [m2], Volume [m3], Density [Kg/m3], Distance [m], etc.

Vector quantities:- Like Scalar quantities, Vector quantities need a magnitude. But in addition,
they have a direction, and sometimes point of application for their complete description. Vectors
are represented by short arrows on top of the letters designating them.

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Examples: Force [N, Kg.m/s2], Velocity [m/s], Acceleration [m/s2], Momentum [N.s, kg.m/s],
Types of Vectors

Generally vectors fall into the following three basic classifications:

a) Free Vectors: are vectors whose action in space is not confined or associated
with a unique line in space; hence they are ‘free’ in space. E.g. Displacement,
Velocity, Acceleration, Couples, etc.
b) Sliding Vectors: are vectors for which a unique line in space along the action of
the quantity must be maintained. E.g. Force acting on rigid bodies.

NB: From the above we can see that a force can be applied anywhere along its line of
action on a rigid body without altering its external effect on the body. This principle is
known as Principle of Transmissibility.
c) Fixed Vectors: are vectors for which a unique and well-defined point of
application is specified to have the same external effect. E.g. Force acting on
non-rigid (deformable) bodies.

Representation of Vectors
I. Graphical representation
Graphically, a vector is represented by a directed line segment headed by an arrow. The
length of the line segment is equal to the magnitude of the vector to some predetermined
scale and the arrow indicates the direction of the vector.

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Length of the line equals, to some scale, the magnitude

of thevector and the arrow indicates the direction of the
vector

NB: The direction of the vector may be measured by an angle θ from some known reference
direction.

II. Algebraic (arithmetic) representation

Algebraically a vector is represented by the components of the vector along the three
dimensions.

E.g.⃗
A = a x i + a yj + a z k, where ax, ay, and azare components of the vector⃗
A along the x, y and z
axes respectively.

NB: The vectors i,j, and k are unit vectors along the respective axes.

a x = Acos θ x = Al; l = cos θ x

a y = Acos θ y = Am; m = cos θ y

a z = Acos θ z = An; n= cos θ z , where l, m, n are the directional cosines of the vector. Thus,

Properties of vectors

Equality of vectors: Two free vectors are said to be equal if and only if they have the same
magnitude and direction.

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The Negative of a vector: is a vector which has equal magnitude to a given vector but opposite
in direction.

Null vector: is a vector of zero magnitude. A null vector has an arbitrary direction.

Unit vector: is any vector whose magnitude is unity. A unit vector along the direction of a
certain vector, say vector A (denoted by uA) can then be found by dividing vector A by its
magnitude.

⃗
A
u⃗ A =
|A|

Generally, any two or more vectors can be aligned in different manner. But they may be:

 Collinear: Having the same line of action.

 Coplanar: Lying in the same plane.
 Concurrent: Passing through a common point.

Operations with Vectors

Scalar quantities are operated in the same way as numbers are operated. But vectors are not and
should be studied.

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Vector Addition or Composition of Vectors

Composition of vectors is the process of adding two or more vectors to get a single vector, called
resultant, which has the same external effect as the combined effect of individual vectors on the
rigid body they act.

There are different techniques of adding vectors

 Graphical Method
 The parallelogram law
 The Triangle rule
 Analytic method
 Trigonometric rules
Component method of vector addition
Graphical Method
The parallelogram law

The law states, “if A and B are two free vectors drawn on scale, the resultant (the equivalent
vector) of the vectors can be found by drawing a parallelogram having sides of these vectors
having sides of these vectors, and the resultant will be the diagonal starting from the tails of both
vectors and ending at the heads of both vectors.”

Steps:

First join the tails of the components at a point so that it makes concurrent, Fig. (a)

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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 this parallelogram that extends to P forms R, which then represents the
resultant vector
R = A + B, Fig. (b).

Once the parallelogram is drawn to scale, the magnitude of the resultant can be found by
measuring the diagonal and converting it to magnitude by the appropriate scale. Thedirection of
the resultant with respect to one of the vectors can be found by measuring the angle the diagonal
makes with that vector.

Note: As we can see in the above figure.

The other diagonal of the parallelogram gives the difference of the vectors, and depending from
which vertex it starts, it represents either⃗
A−⃗
B or ⃗
B− ⃗
A.

Since the two diagonal vectors in the above figure are not equal, of course one is the negative
vector of the other, vector subtraction is not commutative.

i .e

NB. Vector subtraction is addition of the negative of one vector to the other.

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The Triangle rule

It states “If the two vectors, which are drawn on scale, are placed tip (head) to tail, their resultant
will be the third side of the triangle which has tail at the tail of the first vector and head at the
head of the last.”

Steps:
Draw the first Vector
Join the tail of the Second to the head of the Firstand then join the head of the third to the tail of
the first force to get the resultant force, R
The Triangle rule can be extended to more than two vectors as, “If a system of vectors are joined
head to tail, their resultant will be the vector that completes the polygon so formed, and it starts
from the tail of the first vector and ends at the head of the last vector.”

⃗
B
⃗
A
⃗
C

NB. From the Triangle rule it can easily be

seen that if a system of vectors when
joined head to tail form a closed polygon, their resultant will be a null vector.

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Analytic Method:-The analytic methods are the direct applications of the above postulates and
theorems in which the resultant is found mathematically instead of measuring it from the
drawings as in the graphical method.

Trigonometric rules

The resultant of two vectors can be found analytically from the parallelogram rule by applying
the cosine and the sine rules.

Consider the following parallelogram. And let α be the angle between the two vectors

Cosine Law:

C =√ A 2 + B2−2 ABcosc

Sine Law:
A = B = C
sina sinb sinc

Consider triangle ABC.

A| + |B| - 2|⃗
A||⃗
B|cos θ
2 2
R| = |⃗
From cosine law, |⃗ 2

⇒|R| = √|⃗A| +|B| −2|⃗A||⃗B|cos θ

2 2
; This is called the magnitude of the resultant of the
two vectors.

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Similarly, the inclination, β, of the resultant vector from ⃗

A can be found by using sine law,

B
=
R
sinβ sinθ
⟹ β = sin−1 sin
θ∗|⃗
[
B|
|⃗R| ]
, which is the angle the resultant makes with vector A.

Decomposition of vectors

Decomposition is the process of getting the components of a given vector along some other
different axis. Practically decomposition is the reverse of composition.

General expression for obtaining components along any axis

Consider the following vector⃗

A . And let our aim be to find the components of the vector along
the n and t axes

Tip:To resolve A along the two axes t and n

Start at the head of A and construct lines parallel to the

axes, thereby forming the parallelogram as shown in fig. b.
The sides of the parallelogram represent the components,
At and An.

From triangle ABC, α = 180 –( θ+ ∅ ) and from sine law,

|⃗
An|
=
|⃗A|
A n| =|⃗
⟹|⃗ A|
sin ∅
sin ∅ sin α sin α

sin θ
A t| =|⃗
Similarly, |⃗ A|
sin α

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The above are general expressions to get the components of a vector along any axis. In most
cases though, as said above, components are sought along perpendicular axes, i.e.

α =180−(θ+ Φ)=90

⇒ sin α = 1

⇒|⃗
A n| =|⃗
A|sin ∅ = |⃗
A|sin θ

|⃗
A t| =|⃗
A|sin θ = |⃗
A| cos ∅

Component method of vector addition

This is the most efficient method of vector addition, especially when the number of vectors to be
added is large. In this method first the components of each vector along a convenient axis will be
calculated. The sum of the components of each vector along each axis will be equal to the
components of their resultant along the respective axes. Once the components of the resultant are
found, the resultant can be found by parallelogram rule as discussed above.

Vector Multiplication: (Dot and Cross products)

Multiplication of vectors by scalars

Let n be a non-zero scalar and A be a vector, then multiplying A by n gives as a vector whose
magnitude is nA and whose direction is in the direction of A if n is positive or is in opposite
direction to A if n is negative.

Multiplication of vectors by scalars obeys the following rules:

Scalars are distributive over vectors.

n (⃗
A+⃗
B) = n⃗
A + n⃗
B

Vectors are distributive over scalars.

(n + m)⃗
A =n⃗
A + m⃗
B

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Multiplication of vectors by scalars is associative.

(nm)⃗
A = m(n⃗
A ) = n( m⃗
A)

Multiplication of vector by a vector

In mechanics there are a few physical quantities that can be represented by a product of vectors.
Eg. Work, Moment, etc

There are two types of products of vector multiplication:

Dot Product: gives a scalar result, hence also called Scalar Product.
Cross Product: gives a vector result, hence also called Vector Product.

Dot Product

The dot product of two vectors A and B is defined as the product of the magnitudes of A
and B and the cosine of theangle θ between them. This is expressed in equation form as,

⃗ B=|⃗
A ⋅⃗ A||⃗
B| cos θ

Properties of Operation:

Commutative Law: A⋅B = B⋅A

Multiplication by a Scalar: a ( A ⋅ B ) = ( a A ) ⋅ B = A ⋅ ( a B )
Distributive Law: A ⋅ ( B+ D ) = ( A ⋅ B ) + ( A ⋅ D )
If two vectors are expressed as their rectangular form`
A=a x i+a y j+ az k and

B=b x i+ b y j+b z k

Then the dot product will be

⃗
A ⋅⃗
B=( a x i+ a y j+a z k ) ⋅ ( b x i+ b y j+b z k )

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

Carrying out the dot-product operations, the final result becomes

⃗
A ⋅⃗
B=ax b x +ab + y y az bz

Cross Product
The cross product of two vectors ⃗ B yields the vector C, which is written ⃗
A and ⃗ C =⃗
A×⃗
B

Magnitude: The magnitude of C is defined as the product of the magnitudes of A and B

and the sine of the angle θ between their tails.

C| = |⃗
⟹|⃗ A||⃗
B|sin θ

Direction: Vector⃗
C has a direction that is perpendicular to the plane containing A and B.
The direction of ⃗
C can be determined by the right-hand rule; i.e curling the fingers of the
right hand from vector ⃗
A to vector⃗
B, the thumb points in the direction of⃗
C . Knowing both
the magnitude and direction of ⃗
C , we can write

C = |⃗
⃗ A||⃗
B|sin θ u⃗ c

defines the magnitude and defines the direction of

ABsinθ u⃗ c

C.

Properties of Cross Product

The commutative law is not valid, i.e., ⃗

A×⃗
B≠⃗
B×⃗
A . Rather,

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The vector cross product obeys the distributive law addition,

Ca
rtesian Vector Formulation

Those results should not be

memorized; rather it should be
clearly understood how each is obtained by using the right hand rule and the definition of the
cross product. The simple scheme shown above is helpful for obtaining the cross products easily.

Let us now consider the cross product of two general vectors ⃗

A and ⃗
B;

⃗
A = Ax i + A y j + Az k

B = Bx i + B y j + Bz k
⃗

⃗
A×⃗
B = ¿ + A y j + A z k )×( Bx i + B y j + Bz k )

Carrying out the cross product operations and combining terms yields

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This equation may also be written in a more compact determinant form as,

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