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Chapter 3 Notes

The document discusses several topics in physics including: 1) Coordinate systems used to describe an object's position in 2D or 3D space, including Cartesian and polar coordinates. 2) Vector and scalar quantities, where vectors have both magnitude and direction while scalars only have magnitude. 3) Properties of vectors such as adding, subtracting, and multiplying vectors by scalars. Vectors can be broken down into components along each axis.

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Anu Rao
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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176 views

Chapter 3 Notes

The document discusses several topics in physics including: 1) Coordinate systems used to describe an object's position in 2D or 3D space, including Cartesian and polar coordinates. 2) Vector and scalar quantities, where vectors have both magnitude and direction while scalars only have magnitude. 3) Properties of vectors such as adding, subtracting, and multiplying vectors by scalars. Vectors can be broken down into components along each axis.

Uploaded by

Anu Rao
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter 3: Physics

- Physical quantities that have both numerical and directional properties

3.1 COORDINATE SYSTEMS

- many aspects of physics involve a description of a location in space, and the Cartesian coordinate
systems are used to represent the object’s position in 2D
o Cartesian coordinates are also called rectangular coordinates
- Theres also the plane polar coordinates (r, θ) , where r is the distance from the origin to the point
having Cartesian coordinates (x, y) and θ is the angle between a fixed axis and a line drawn from the
origin to the point
o Fixed axis is usually the positive x axis, θ is measured counterclockwise
- Sin θ= y/r
- Cos θ= x/r
- x= rcos θ
- y= rsin θ
- r= √ x 2+ y 2
- tan θ= y/x

3.2 VECTOR AND SCALAR QUANTITIES

- a scalar quantity is completely specified by a single value with an appropriate unit and has no
direction
- a vector quantity is completely specified by a number and appropriate units and a direction
o displacement is an example
o A or⃗ A is how a vector is represented
o A |, has physical units (like meters for displacement and
Magnitude is represented by the |⃗
meters per second for velocity

3.3 SOME PROPERTIES OF VECTORS

Equality of Two Vectors

- If two vectors are defined as equal if they have the same magnitude and if they point in the same
direction (i.e. they are parallel lines)

Adding Vectors

- If R = A + B, then R= resultant vector, and it is the one drawn from the tail of A to the tip of B
(headtail method)

R
⃗ B
⃗

A
⃗

- When two vectors are added, the sum is independent of the order of the addition, leading to the
A+ ⃗
commutative law of addition: ⃗ B= ⃗B+ ⃗ A
- When tree or more vectors are added, the same thing applies, leading to the associative law of
addition
- Same applies to scalar quantities

Negative Vector

- A is defined as the vector that when added


The negative of the vector ⃗ A gives 0 to the vector sum;
⃗
same magnitude but point in opposite directions

Subtracting Vectors

- A + (-⃗
⃗ B) is how you subtract vectors

Multiplying a Vector by a Scalar

- When vector ⃗A is multiplied by a positive scalar quantity m, the product m ⃗


A is a vector that has the
same direction as ⃗A and magnitude mA
- If vector A is multiplied by a negative scalar quantity –m, the product –mA is directed opposite A.
o EXAMPLES:
 5A is a vector 5x as long as A and points in the same direction as A
 -1/3A is a vector 1/3 the length of A and points in the opposite direction as A

3.4 COMPONENTS OF A VECTOR AND UNIT VECTORS

- for high accuracy calculations, graphical method is BAD


- instead, use projections of vectors along coordinate axes
- projections are called the components or rectangular components of the vector
- if you have a vector A lying in the xy plane making an angle θ with the x axis, then there are two other
component vectors Ax and Ay, the letter signifying which axis it is parallel to
- these vectors form a right triangle, with A being the hypotenuse, and see that A= A x + Ay
- components can be positive or negative, positive if facing the positive axis, negative if facing the
negative axis
- components of A
o Ax=A cos θ
o Ay= A sin θ
2 2
o A= √A +A
x y
o The sign of the components depends on the angle

Unit Vectors

- A unit vector is a dimensionless vector having a magnitude of exactly 1.


- Used to specify a given direction and have no other physical significance
- i^ ,^j, k^ is used to descrive unit vectors pointing in the positive directions x, y, and z
- The magnitude = 1
- Vector A= Ax i + Ay j
- Position vector r= xi + xj
- If one wants to add A and B, they just add the components together, so R= (Axi + Ayi) + (Bxi + Byi)
- The magnitude of R= √ ( A x i+ A y i)+(B x i+ B y i)

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