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Lecture 3 and 4: Saif Ahmed (Sfa) Lecturer, Department of Mathematics and Physics North South University

This document contains lecture material on vectors and scalars: - Vectors have both magnitude and direction, while scalars only have magnitude and do not point in a spatial direction. Displacement, velocity, and acceleration are vector quantities, while temperature, pressure, energy, mass, and time are scalars. - The vector sum or resultant of two vectors represents the overall displacement when those vectors are added head to tail. Vector addition follows different rules than algebraic addition. - Unit vectors have a magnitude of 1 and point in a specific direction, specifying orientations in space without having dimensions or units. They are used to define coordinate systems and represent directions.

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Saif Ahmed
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29 views

Lecture 3 and 4: Saif Ahmed (Sfa) Lecturer, Department of Mathematics and Physics North South University

This document contains lecture material on vectors and scalars: - Vectors have both magnitude and direction, while scalars only have magnitude and do not point in a spatial direction. Displacement, velocity, and acceleration are vector quantities, while temperature, pressure, energy, mass, and time are scalars. - The vector sum or resultant of two vectors represents the overall displacement when those vectors are added head to tail. Vector addition follows different rules than algebraic addition. - Unit vectors have a magnitude of 1 and point in a specific direction, specifying orientations in space without having dimensions or units. They are used to define coordinate systems and represent directions.

Uploaded by

Saif Ahmed
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lecture 3 and 4

Saif Ahmed (SfA)


Lecturer, Department of Mathematics and Physics
North South University
Vectors and Scalars
Vector
• A vector has magnitude as well as
direction, and vectors follow certain
(vector) rules of combination, which
we examine in this chapter. A vector
quantity is a quantity that has both
a magnitude and a direction and
thus can be represented with a
vector. Some physical quantities that
are vector quantities are
displacement, velocity, and
acceleration.
Scalars
• Not all physical quantities involve a direction. Temperature, pressure,
energy, mass, and time, for example, do not “point” in the spatial
sense. We call such quantities scalars, and we deal with them by the
rules of ordinary algebra. A single value, with a sign (as in a
temperature of 40°F), specifies a scalar.
Adding vectors
Suppose that, as in the vector diagram of Fig. 3-2a, a particle moves from A
to B and then later from B to C. We can represent its overall displacement
(no matter what its actual path) with two successive displacement vectors,
AB and BC.
The net displacement of these two displacements is a single displacement
from A to C. We call AC the vector sum (or resultant) of the vectors AB
and BC. This sum is not the usual algebraic sum. In Fig. 3-2b, we redraw
the vectors of Fig. 3-2a and relabel them in the way
that we shall use from now on, namely, with an arrow over an italic symbol,
as in . If we want to indicate only the magnitude of the vector (a quantity that
lacks a sign or direction), we shall use the italic symbol, as in a, b, and s.
(You can use just a handwritten symbol.) A symbol with an overhead arrow
always implies
both properties of a vector, magnitude and direction. We can represent the
relation among the three vectors in Fig. 3-2b with the
vector equation
Vector Laws
Vector Laws
Components of the vectors
Components of the vector
Exercise
Solution
Solution
Unit Vectors
• A unit vector is a vector that has a
magnitude of exactly 1 and points in a
particular direction. It lacks both
dimension and unit. Its sole purpose
is to point—that is, to specify a
direction. The unit vectors in the
positive directions of the x, y, and z
axes are labeled , , and , where the
hat is used instead of an overhead
arrow as for other vectors (Fig. 3-
13).The arrangement of axes in Fig. 3-
13 is said to be a right-handed
coordinate system. The system
remains right-handed if it is rotated
rigidly.
Unit Vectors
Example
Solution
Vectors with different axes
Multiplying vectors
Multiplying vectors
Vector Projection
Vector Product
Example
Solution
Example
Solution

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