The motion of a particle in one dimension is simple. Its velocity is either
positive or negative: positive velocity corresponds to a motion to the right
while negative velocity corresponds to a motion to the left. To describe the
motion of an object in 3 dimensions, we need to specify not only the magnitude
of its velocity, but also its direction: velocity is a
vector. A
quantity not involving a direction is a
scalar. Examples of
scalars are temperature, pressure and time. In this Chapter we will discuss
the various vector operations that will be used in this course.
3.1. Vector Addition
One important vector operation that we will frequently encounter is vector
addition. There are two methods for vector addition: the graphical method and
the analytical method. We will start discussing vector addition by using the
graphical method.
3.1.1. The graphical method
Assume two vectors

and

are defined. If

is added to

,
a third vector

is created (see Figure 3.1).
Figure 3.1. Commutative Law of Vector Addition.
There are however two ways of combining the vectors

and

(see Figure 3.1). Inspection of the resulting vector

shows that vector addition satisfies the
commutative
law (order of addition does not influence the final result):
Vector addition also satisfies the
associative
law (the result of vector addition is independent of the order in
which the vectors are added, see Figure 3.2):
Figure 3.2. Associative Law of Vector Addition.
Figure 3.3. Vector

and -

The
opposite of vector

is a vector with the same magnitude as

but pointing in the opposite direction (see Figure 3.3):

+ (-

)
= 0
Subtracting

from

is the same as adding the opposite of

to

(see Figure 3.4):
Figure 3.4. Vector Subtraction.
Figure 3.4 also shows that

+

=

.
In actual calculations the graphical method is not practical, and the vector
algebra is performed on its components (this is the analytical method).
To demonstrate the use of the analytical method of vector addition, we
limit ourselves to 2 dimensions. Define a coordinate system with an x-axis and
y-axis (see Figure 3.5). We can always find 2 vectors,

and

,
whose vector sum equals

.
These two vectors,

and

,
are called the
components of

,
and by definition satisfy the following relation:
Suppose that [theta] is the angle between the vector

and the x-axis. The 2 components of

are defined such that their direction is along the x-axis and y-axis. The
length of each of the components can now be easily calculated:
and the vector

can be written as:
Figure 3.5. Decomposition of vector

.
Note: in contrast to Halliday, Resnick, and Walker we use

and

to indicate the unit vectors along the x- and y-axis, respectively (Halliday,
Resnick, and Walker use
i,
j, and
k which is harder to
write). The decomposition of vector

into 2 components is not unambiguous. It depends on the choice of the
coordinate system (see Figure 3.6).
Although the decomposition of a vector depends on the coordinate system
chosen, relations between vectors are not affected by the choice of the
coordinate system (for example, if two vectors are perpendicular in one
coordinate system, they are perpendicular in every coordinate system). The
physics (and the relation between physical quantities) is also not affected by
the choice of the coordinate system, and we usually choose the coordinate
system such that our problems can be solved most easily. This was already
demonstrated in Chapter 2, where the origin of the coordinate system was
usually defined as the position of the object at time t = 0. In two or three
dimensions, we can usually choose the coordinate system such that one of the
vectors coincides with one of the coordinate axes. For example, if the
coordinate system is defined such that the direction of

is along the x-axis, the components of

are:
ax = a
ay = 0
az = 0
Figure 3.6. Decomposition of vector

in different coordinate systems.
Vector algebra using the analytical method is based on the following
rule:
"
Two vectors are equal to each other if their corresponding
components are equal"
Applying this rule to vector addition:
Comparing the equations for

and

,
we can conclude that since

is equal to

,
their components are related as follows:
These relations describe vector addition using the analytical technique
(and similar relations hold for vector addition in three dimensions).
We have just described how to find the components of a vector if its
magnitude and direction are provided. If the components of a vector are
provided, we can also calculate its direction and magnitude. Suppose the
components of vector

along the x-axis and y-axis are a
x and a
y, respectively.
The length of the vector

can be easily calculated:
The angle [theta] between the vector

and the positive x-axis can be obtained from the following relation (see also
Figure 3.5):
Note: one should exercise great care in using the previous
relation for [theta]. Atan(a
y/a
x) has 2 solutions; any
calculator will return the solution between - [pi]/2 and [pi]/2. The correct
solution will depend on the sign of a
x:
if ax > 0: - [pi]/2 < [theta] < [pi]/2
if ax < 0: [pi]/2 < [theta] < 3[pi]/2
Figure 3.7. Example of angle ambiguity.
Example: The two vectors shown in Figure 3.7 can be written
as:
It is clear that for both vectors: atan([theta]) = 1. For vector

,
the solution is [theta] = 45deg., while for vector

,
the solution is [theta] = 135deg.. Note that a
x = 1 > 0, and
b
x = -1 < 0.
3.2. Multiplying Vectors - Multiplying a Vector by a Scalar
The product of a vector

and a scalar s is a new vector, whose direction is the same as that of

if s is positive or opposite to that direction if s is negative (see Figure
3.8). The magnitude of the new vector is the magnitude of

multiplied by the absolute value of s. This procedure can be summarized as
follows:
Figure 3.8. Multiplying a vector by a scalar.
Since two vectors are only equal only if their corresponding components
are equal, we obtain the following relation between the components of

and the components of

:
The following relations are summarizing the relations between the
magnitude and direction of the vectors

and

:
3.3. Multiplying Vectors - Scalar Product
Two vectors

and

are shown in Figure 3.9. The angle between these two vectors is [phi]. The
scalar product of

and

(represented by
.

)
is defined as:
In a coordinate system in which the x, y and z-axes are mutual
perpendicular, the following relations hold for the scalar product between the
various unit vectors:
Suppose that the vectors

and

are defined as follows:
Figure 3.9. Scalar Product of vectors

and

.
The scalar product of

and

can now be rewritten in terms of the scalar product between the unit vectors
along the x, y and z-axes:
Note that in deriving this equation, we have applied the following
rule:
An alternative derivation of the expression of the scalar product in
terms of the components of the two vectors can be easily derived as follows
(see Figure 3.10). The components of

and

are given by:
Figure 3.10. Alternative Derivation of Scalar Product.
ax = a cos(a)
ay = a sin(a)
bx = b cos([beta])
by = b sin([beta])
The scalar product can now be obtained as follows:
What is so useful about the scalar product ? If two vectors are
perpendicular, their relative angle equals 90deg., and
.

= 0. The scalar product therefore provides an easy test to determine whether
two vectors are perpendicular. Suppose

and

are defined as follows:
These two vectors are perpendicular since:
In a similar manner we can easily determine whether the angle between
the two vector is less than 90deg. (in which case
.

> 0) or more than 90deg. (in which case
.

< 0)
3.4. Multiplying Vectors - Vector Product
The vector product of two vectors

and

,
written as

x

,
is a third vector

with the following properties:
- the magnitude of
is given by:
where [phi] is the smallest angle between
and
.
Note: the angle between
and
is [phi] or 360deg. - [phi]. However, since sin([phi]) = - sin(2[pi] - [phi]),
the vector product is different for these two angles.
- The direction of
is perpendicular to the plane defined by
and
,
and the direction (up or down) is determined using the right-hand rule.
It is clear from the definition of the vector product that the order of the
components is important. It can be shown, by applying the right hand rule,
that the following relation holds:
The following expression can be used to calculate
x
if the components of
and
are provided:
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