PH 1101: MECHANICS

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VECTORS

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What is a Vector?
• A quantity that has both Magnitude and Direction
• Examples
• Wind
• Boat or aircraft travel
• Forces in physics
• Geometrically it is a
Terminal
directed line segment point

Initial point
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Vector Notation
• Given by
Angle brackets <a, b> a vector with
Ordered pair (a, b)
 Initial point at origin, terminal point at the specified ordered pair

(a, b)

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Vector Notation
An arrow over a letter V
• or a letter in bold face V V
An arrow over two letters
• The initial and terminal points
AB
A
• or both letters in bold face AB
B

• The magnitude (length) of a vector is notated with double

vertical lines

V AB
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Equivalent Vectors
•
(a, b)

Pt  xt , yt  Pi  xi , yi 

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Find the Vector

• Given P1 (0, -3) and P2 (1, 5)
• Show vector representation in <x, y> format
P1 P2
• <1 – 0, 5 – (-3)> = <1,8>
• Try these
• P1(4,2) and P2 (-3, -3)

• P4(3, -2) and P2(3, 0)

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Fundamental Vector Operations

Given vectors V = <a, b>, W = <c, d>

• Magnitude V  a b2 2

• Addition
• V + W = <a + c, b + d>

• Scalar multiplication – changes the magnitude, not the

direction
• 3V = <3a, 3b>

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Vector Addition
• Sum of two vectors is the single equivalent vector which
has same effect as application of the two vectors

Note that the sum of

two vectors is the
A
B diagonal of the
resulting parallelogram

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Vector Subtraction
• The difference of two vectors is the result of adding a
negative vector
• A – B = A + (-B)

A
B

A-B

-B

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Vector Addition / Subtraction

• Add vectors by adding respective components
• <3, 4> + <6, -5> = ?
• <2.4, - 7> - <2, 6.8> = ?
• Try these visually,
draw the results

A
• A+C
C
• B–A
• C + 2B

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Magnitude of a Vector
• Magnitude found using Pythagorean theorem or distance
formula
• Given A = <4, -7> A  4  (7)  65
2 2

• Find the magnitude of these:

• P1P2 if P1(4,2) and P2 (-3, -3)

• P3P4 if P3(3, -2) and P4(3, 0)

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Unit Vectors
• Definition:
• A vector whose magnitude is 1
• Typically we use the horizontal and vertical unit vectors i
and j
• i = <1, 0> j = <0, 1>
• Then use the vector components to express the vector as a sum
• V = <3,5> = 3i + 5j

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Unit Vectors
• Use unit vectors to add vectors
• <4, -2> + <6, 9>
4i – 2j + 6i + 9j = 10i + 7j
• Use to find magnitude

- 3i  4j  - 3  4
2

2 1/2
5
• Use to find direction
• Direction for -2i + 2j

2
tan   
2
3

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Finding the Components

• Components of A = <Ax, Ay>

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• The components form two sides of a right triangle with a
hypotenuse of length A.
• The magnitude and direction of A are related to its
components through the expressions

• The signs of the components Ax and Ay depend on the

angle θ.
• For example, if θ =120°, then Ax is negative and Ay is
positive. If θ = 225°, then both Ax and Ay are negative.

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Applications of Vectors
• Sammy is steering his boat at a heading of 327° at
18mph. The current is flowing at 4mph at a heading of
60°. Find Sammy's course

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Solution
• To find Sammy's course you have to add the two
velocities (vectors), 18 mph 327º and 4 mph 60º.
• To add the two vectors analytically you decompose each
vector into their vertical and horizontal components.
• Case 1: 18 mph 327º
• Horizontal component: 18 mph × cos (327º) = 15.10 mph
• Vertical component: 18 mph × sin (327º) = - 9.80 mph
• Vector notation:

• Case 2: 4 mph 60º

• Horizontal component: 4 mph × cos (60º) = 2.00 mph
• Vertical component: 4 mph × sin (60º) = 3.46 mph
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• Vector notation:

• Addition:

• The magnitude:

• Direction:

• arctan(1.73) ≈ 59.97º

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Application of Vectors
• A 120 N force keeps an 800 N box from sliding down an
inclined ramp. What is the angle of the ramp?

• What we have
is the force,
the weight
creates
parallel to the
ramp

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Solution

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Dot Product
Given vectors V = <a, b>, W = <c, d>
• Dot product defined as

V.W  a.c  b.d

• Note that the result is a scalar
• Also known as
• Inner product or
• Scalar product

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Find the Dot product

• Given A = 3i + 7j, B = -2i + 4j, and
C = 6i - 5j
• Find the following:
• A•B=?
• B•C=?
• The dot product can also be found with the following
formula

V  W  V  W  cosα

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Dot Product Formula

• Formula on previous slide may be more useful for finding
the angle α

V  W  V  W  cosα
VW
cos 
V  W

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Find the Angle

• Given two vectors
• V = <1, -5> and W = <-2, 3>

Calculate dot product

Find the angle between them

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Dot Product Properties

• Commutative
• Distributive over addition
• Multiplicative property of zero
• Dot products of
• i • i =1
• j•j=1
• i•j=0

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Dot Product Properties ……..

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Scalar Projection
• Given two vectors v and w

v

w
projwv
The projection of v on w

• Projwv = v  cos 

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Scalar Projection
• The other possible configuration for the projection

w projwv
The projection of v on w
• Formula used is the same but result will be negative
because  > 90°

v  cos 

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Parallel and Perpendicular Vectors

• Recall formula

• What would it mean if this resulted in a value of 0?

• What angle has a cosine of 0?

V W
0    90
V W

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Parallel Vectors
•

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Perpendicular Vectors

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An Application of the Dot Product

• The horse pulls for 1000ft with a force of 250 N at an angle
of 37° with the ground. The amount of work done is force
times displacement. This can be given with the dot product

W  F s
 F  s  cos 
37°

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Curl and Divergence
Curl

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Curl
•If F = P i + Q j + R k is a vector field on and the partial
derivatives of P, Q, and R all exist, then the curl of F is the
vector field on defined by

• (1)

•Let’s rewrite Equation 1 using operator notation. We

introduce the vector differential operator  (“del”) as

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Curl
•It has meaning when it operates on a scalar function to
produce the gradient of f :

•If we think of  as a vector with components ∂/∂x, ∂/∂y,

and ∂/∂z, we can also consider the formal cross product of
 with the vector field F as follows:

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Curl

•So the easiest way to remember Definition 1 is by means

of the symbolic expression

(2)

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Example 1
•If F(x, y, z) = xz i + xyz j – y2 k, find curl F.

•Solution:
•Using Equation 2, we have

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Example 1 – Solution cont’d

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Curl
•Recall that the gradient of a function f of three variables is
a vector field on and so we can compute its curl.

•The following theorem says that the curl of a gradient

vector field is 0.
•Theorem: If f is a function of three variables that has
continuous second order partial derivatives, then,

curlf   0 (3)

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Curl
•Since a conservative vector field is one for which F = f,
Theorem 3 can be rephrased as follows:

• If F is conservative, then curl F = 0.

•This gives us a way of verifying that a vector field is not

conservative.

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Curl
•The reason for the name curl is that the curl vector is
associated with rotations.
•It occurs when F represents the velocity field in fluid flow.
Particles near (x, y, z) in the fluid tend to rotate about the
axis that points in the direction of curl F(x, y, z), and the
length of this curl vector is a measure of how quickly the
particles move around the axis (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 44
Curl
•If curl F = 0 at a point P, then the fluid is free from rotations
at P and F is called irrotational at P.

•In other words, there is no whirlpool or eddy at P.

•If curl F = 0, then a tiny paddle wheel moves with the fluid
but doesn’t rotate about its axis.

•If curl F ≠ 0, the paddle wheel rotates about its axis.

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Divergence

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Divergence
•If F = P i + Q j + R k is a vector field on and
∂P/∂x, ∂Q/∂y, and ∂R/∂z exist, then the
divergence of F is the function of three
variables defined by
(4)

• Observe that curl F is a vector field but div F is a scalar

field.
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Divergence
• In terms of the gradient operator
 = (∂/∂x) i + (∂/∂y) j + (∂/∂z) k, the divergence of F can be
written symbolically as the dot product of  and F:

(5)

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Example 4
•If F(x, y, z) = xz i + xyz j - y2 k, find div F.

•Solution:
•By the definition of divergence (Equation 4 or 5) we have

• div F =   F

• = z + xz

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Divergence
•If F is a vector field on, then curl F is also a vector field
on . As such, we can compute its divergence.

•The next theorem shows that the result is 0.

•Theorem:
•If F = Pi + Qj + Rk is a vector field on and P, Q and R have
continuous second order partial derivatives, then,
div curl F  0
(6)

• Again, the reason for the name divergence can be understood

in the context of fluid flow.
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Divergence
•If F(x, y, z) is the velocity of a fluid (or gas), then
div F(x, y, z) represents the net rate of change (with respect
to time) of the mass of fluid (or gas) flowing from the point
(x, y, z) per unit volume.

•In other words, div F(x, y, z) measures the tendency of the

fluid to diverge from the point (x, y, z).

•If div F = 0, then F is said to be incompressible.

•Another differential operator occurs when we compute the

divergence of a gradient vector field f.

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Divergence
•If f is a function of three variables, we have

and this expression occurs so often that we abbreviate it as

2f.
•The operator  =   
2

is called the Laplace operator because of its relation to

Laplace’s equation

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Divergence
•We can also apply the Laplace operator  to a vector field
2

F=Pi+Qj+Rk

in terms of its components:

•  2F =  2P i +  2Q j +  2R k

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