P2 Chapter 12 :: Vectors

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Last modified: 20th October 2020

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Chapter Overview
This chapter is not hugely long, nor intended to be demanding (relatively speaking!).
It’s a reminder of how 3D coordinates work (which you may have encountered at
GCSE), and extends some of the results you learned in Year 1 vectors from 2D to 3D.

1:: Distance between two points. 2:: notation for vectors

( )
What’s the distance between and ? 1
−2 → 𝒊 − 2 𝒋 +5 𝒌
5

3:: Magnitude of a 3D vector and using 4:: Solving Geometric Problems

it to find angle between vector and a Same as Year 1 but with 3D vectors.
coordinate axis.
“Find the angles that the vector 5:: Application to Mechanics
makes with each of the positive coordinate
Using with 3D force/acceleration vectors and
axis.”
understanding distance is the magnitude of the
3D displacement vector, etc.

Note for teachers: All the harder vectors content from C4 has been moved to
Further Maths, i.e. no vector equations of straight lines nor dot product nor
angles between vectors (except with a coordinate axis).
Distance from the origin and magnitude of a vector
𝑦 In 2D, how did we find the distance from
a point to the origin?
( 3 , 4) Using Pythagoras:
𝑑 ?
4

𝑥 How about in 3D then?

𝑧 3 You may be familiar with this method from GCSE.
Using Pythagoras on the base of the cuboid:
𝑦
( 3 , 4 , 12 ) Then using the highlighted triangle:
?
We could have similarly done this is one go using:

𝑥
From Year 1 you will be familiar with the magnitude of a vector being its length. We
can see from above that this nicely extends to 3D:

! The magnitude of a vector :

And the distance of from the origin is

Distance between two 3D points

𝑧 How do we find the distance between and ?

It’s just the magnitude/length of the vector
𝑦 between them.
𝑃 ( 3,4 ,12 ) i.e.
?
𝑥
𝑄 ( 4 , −1 , 7 )

! The distance between two points is:

means
“change in ”

Quickfire Questions: Distance between and Fro Tip: Because we’re

Distance of from the origin: ? squaring, it doesn’t matter
whether the change is
? Distance between and negative or positive.

?
? Distance between and

?
Test Your Understanding So Far…
[Textbook] Find the distance from the origin to the point .

√ 𝟕𝟐 +𝟕𝟐 +𝟕
? =𝟕 √ 𝟑
𝟐

[Textbook] The coordinates of and are and respectively. Given that the distance
from to is units, find the possible values of .

√𝟒 +(𝒌−𝟑) +𝟓 =𝟑√𝟏𝟎
𝟐 𝟐? 𝟐
 , and notation
In 2D you were previously introduced to and as unit vectors in each of the and
directions.

It meant for example that could be written as since

Unsurprisingly, in 3D:

Quickfire Questions 2 Write as a column vector:

( ?) ( ?)
0 1
1 Put in notation: 4 𝒋 +𝒌= 4 𝒊 − 𝒋= −1
1 0

()
1
?
2 =𝒊 +2 𝒋 +3 𝒌 3 If then

( )
−7
3
?
3 =− 7 𝒊+ 3 𝒋
?
( )
3 0
0 =3 𝒊 − 𝒌
? If and then
−1 4 ?
Examples
Find the magnitude of and hence find , the unit vector in the direction of .

Magnitude of is
Recall from Year 1 that if the length/magnitude
? of the vector is , then clearly dividing this vector
by will give a length of 1. It has unit length and
therefore is known as a unit vector.

If and is parallel to .

which is a multiple of
parallel. ?
Angles between vectors and an axis

𝑧 How could you work out the angle

between a vector and the -axis?
𝑦
𝒂
? triangle!
Just form a right-angle

 The angle between and the -axis is:

𝜃𝑥
𝑥 𝑥 and similarly for the and axes.

[Textbook] Find the angles that the vector

makes with each of the positive coordinate
axis.

|𝑎|=√2 +(−3) +(−1) =√14

2 ?2 2
 Test Your Understanding
[Textbook] The points and have position vectors and relative to a fixed origin, . Find and show
that is isosceles.

We can find by simply looking

at the change from 4 to 3, and
so on. The textbook has a
(but ) therefore is isosceles. longwinded way of writing and
, then finding . Overkill!
?

(a) Find the angle that the vector makes with the -axis.
(b) Find the angle that makes with the -axis.
(c) Explain why the difference between these angles does not give you the angle between and .

a c The difference () would only be the angle between and if

and were coplanar, i.e. lied on the same plane.
?
b ?74.499 °
?
𝑥
Exercise 12B
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 2/AS
Pages 341-343
Geometric Problems
For more general problems involving vectors, often drawing a diagram helps!

[Textbook] and are the points , and [Textbook] and are the points and
respectively. respectively. Find the coordinates of the point
a. Find and , giving your answers in so that forms a parallelogram.
the form
.
b. Show that the lines and are 𝑆
parallel and that .
c. Hence describe the quadrilateral . 𝑃 (4,− 9,− 3) (Draw a diagram, recalling
that the letters go in a
𝑅 (8 , −2 , 0) clockwise or anticlockwise
order)

𝑄 (7 , −7 , −7)
a
? ? This is basically just saying
“whatever we move from
to , we do the same
b They are multiples parallel. movement starting from ”
?
and are parallel but different in
c length. Therefore is a trapezium.
?
Comparing Coefficients
There are many contexts in maths where we can ‘compare coefficients’, e.g.

Comparing terms: [Textbook] The diagram shows a cuboid whose

vertices are and . Vectors and are the position
We can do the same with vectors: vectors of the vertices and respectively. Prove that
the diagonals and bisect each other.

[Textbook] Given that 𝐸

𝐹
, find the values of and . 𝐶 𝐺 The strategy behind this
𝒄 type of question is to
𝐻 find the point of

𝐵 𝐷 intersection in 2 ways,
𝒃𝑂 𝒂 𝐴
and compare
coefficients.
Comparing :
Comparing : ? Suppose there is a point of intersection of and .
Comparing :
We can get to in two ways:
for some scalar .
for some scalar .
?
Comparing coefficients, and
Adding:
Therefore lines bisect each other.
Exercise 12C
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 2/AS
Pages 346-347
Application to Mechanics
Out of displacement, speed, acceleration, force, mass and time, all
but mass and time are vectors. Clearly these can act in 3D space.

Vector Scalar

( ) √ 3 +4 +?( −1 )
3
Force 4 𝑁 2 2 2
−1

()
1
1.41 𝑚 𝑠 ?
−2 −2
Acceleration 0 𝑚𝑠
1

( )
12
Displacement 3 𝑚 13 𝑚? Distance
4

()
0
5 𝑚?
−1
Velocity 4 𝑚𝑠 Speed
3
Example
[Textbook] A particle of mass 0.5 kg is acted on by three forces.

a. Find the resultant force acting on the particle.

b. Find the acceleration of the particle, giving your answer in the form ms -2.
c. Find the magnitude of the acceleration.

Given that the particle starts at rest,

d. Find the distance travelled by the particle in the first 6 seconds of its motion.

a.
b. ?
c. ms-2
d. ?
?
?
Exercise 12D
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 2/AS
Pages 348-349
The End