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Intro To Vectors

The document discusses vectors and operations involving vectors. It defines a vector as having both magnitude and direction, unlike a scalar which only has magnitude. It describes how to define a vector using its magnitude and direction in radians. It also explains how to add and subtract vectors by either combining their components geometrically or by adding/subtracting the x and y components. Scalar multiplication changes the magnitude of a vector but not its direction.

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TheEngineeringStudent
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74 views6 pages

Intro To Vectors

The document discusses vectors and operations involving vectors. It defines a vector as having both magnitude and direction, unlike a scalar which only has magnitude. It describes how to define a vector using its magnitude and direction in radians. It also explains how to add and subtract vectors by either combining their components geometrically or by adding/subtracting the x and y components. Scalar multiplication changes the magnitude of a vector but not its direction.

Uploaded by

TheEngineeringStudent
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Vectors

January 11, 2021

Contents
1 What is a Vector? 2

2 Defining a Vector 2
2.1 Equivalent Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

3 Operations With Vectors 3


3.1 Geometric Addition and Subtraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.2 Adding and Subtracting the Components . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2.1 Example: Find the x and y components of ~v if the
magnitude is 4 units and direction 0.8 radians. . . . . 4
3.2.2 Geometric Example of a Negative Vector . . . . . . . . 5
3.2.3 Example of Subtracting Components . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.3 A Word on Scalar Multiplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

1
1 What is a Vector?
• Many mathematical quantities just express a magnitude. Examples
include time intervals, amounts of money, and lengths. Such things are
called scalars.

• A vector has a second component, direction. Only when you have


described a magnitude and a direction do you have a vector.

• Notation for a vector uses an arrow, such as ~v .

• Examples of scalar quantities: speed, length, time, temperature.

• Examples of vector quantities: velocity, weight (typically), force, accel-


eration.

Figure 1: An example of a Vector.

2 Defining a Vector
Vectors in 2D requires two pieces of information for a full description. One
common way to do this is provide the magnitude (denoted ||~v ||) and an angle,
θ. For example you could have a vector of 4 units magnitude with a direction
given by 0.8 radians. Now you have a fully-described vector, baby!

2
4
=
||
||~v
θ = 0.8

Figure 2: A geometric representation of the vector described. If it were


desired to find the x and y components of the vector magnitude, the triangle
could be solved using the sine and tangent ratios. Can you do it?

2.1 Equivalent Vectors


If two vectors have the same magnitude and direction, they are considered
equivalent.

3 Operations With Vectors


The simplest operation with vectors is addition. To find the sum of two
vectors, their components of direction and magnitude must be considered. A
vector sum is called a resultant. Vector addition is commutative, distributive
and associative.

3.1 Geometric Addition and Subtraction


There are two ways to add vectors geometrically: the polygon method and
the parallelogram method. With the polygon method, the resultant (i.e.,
the answer) is the ray drawn from the initial point of the first vector to
the terminal point of the last vector. The resultant with the parallelogram
method is the length of the diagonal.

3
~b

~a
~a + ~b

Figure 3: An example showing how two vectors can be added using the
polygon method. In this case the shape is not a right triangle, so you’d have
to either measure the resultant side with a ruler or use trigonometry. Don’t
bother trying here, because I haven’t given you enough information to solve
the triangle.

When two vectors are involved and have different initial points, the
polygon method is really just the triangle method. With more complicated
polygons, you need to draw them to-scale so that you can outright measure
the length of the resultant ray and arrive at an approximate answer. Yeah,
not very rigorous. There is a more precise way to do it though!

3.2 Adding and Subtracting the Components


A plane vector has an x and a y component. If you know both, you can just
add them individually to the x and y components of any other vector.
E.g. if ~a = (2, 3) and ~b = (1, 4), then ~a + ~b = (2 + 1, 3 + 4) = (3, 7).
The typical way to decompose a vector into its x and y components is to
treat the magnitude as the hypotenuse of a right triangle. Then, along with
the direction θ, you can find the opposite and adjacent sides.

3.2.1 Example: Find the x and y components of ~v if the magni-


tude is 4 units and direction 0.8 radians.
Solution.
Using the triangle from fig. 2, we find that the opposite side can be solved
as 4 sin 0.8 ≈ 2.869.
4 sin 0.8
That gives the adjacent as ≈ 2.787.
tan 0.8

4
4
=
opp

||
||~v
θ = 0.8
adj

4 sin 0.8
Figure 4: Opp = 4 sin 0.8 and adj = .
tan 0.8

∴ v~x ≈ 2.869, v~y ≈ 2.787.


So there.


Vector subtraction is just the opposite of addition. Consider it as adding


a negative vector. A negative vector has the same magnitude but goes in the
exact opposite direction.

3.2.2 Geometric Example of a Negative Vector

−~b

~a + (−~b)
~a

Figure 5: The vector sum from fig. 3, except ~b is now negative.

5
3.2.3 Example of Subtracting Components
If ~a = (2, 3) and ~b = (1, 4), find ~a − ~b.
Solution.

~a − ~b = (2 − 1, 3 − 4) = (1, −1).

√ By Pythagoras, the magnitude of the resultant vector is


p
12 + (−1)2 =
2.


3.3 A Word on Scalar Multiplication


Scalars get their name from the fact that they scale vectors.
For now, we will say that the product of a scalar and a vector is a vector.
Multiplying a scalar with a vector changes the vector’s magnitude. A positive
scalar wouldn’t change the direction, but a negative scalar would.
You can multiply the scalar through each of the components. If ~v = (5, 8),
then 2~v = (2 · 5, 2 · 8).
Scalar multiplication follows the same rules you are familiar with for the
field of real numbers.

• Associative

• Commutative

• Distributive

• The identity property 1~v ≡ ~v

• The multiplicative property of -1 is the same.

• The multiplicative property of 0 is the same.

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