Scalar Quantities

Scalar quantities are numbers that have a magnitude but no direction. Scalars are
represented by a single letter, such as a. Some examples of scalar quantities are numbers
without units (such as three), mass (five kilograms), and temperature (twenty-two degrees
Celsius).

Vector Quantities
Vectors are a geometric way of representing quantities that have direction as well as
magnitude. An example of a vector is force. If we are to fully describe a force on an object
we need to specify not only how much force is applied, but also in which direction. Another
example of a vector quantity is velocity -- an object that is traveling at ten meters per second
to the east has a different velocity than an object that is traveling ten meters per second to
the west. This vector is a special case; however, sometimes people are interested in only the
magnitude of the velocity of an object. This quantity, a scalar, is called speed which has
magnitude but no given direction.

When vectors are written, they are represented by a single letter in bold type or with an
arrow above the letter, such as or . Some examples of vectors are displacement (e.g. 120
cm at 30°) and velocity (e.g. 12 meters per second north). The only basic SI unit that is a
vector is the meter. All others are scalars. Derived quantities can be vector or scalar, but
every vector quantity must involve meters in its definition and unit.
Unit Vectors
A unit vector has a magnitude of 1 with no units which is used to describe a point in space. It
provides a convenient notation for expressions involving vector components. It is designated
by symbol hat “^”.
A component vector is still a vector A  Ax  A y
A unit vector is used to specify a direction i  x ˆj  y kˆ  z
ˆ

A x  Ax iˆ
A y  Ay ˆj
Then A  Ax iˆ  Ay ˆj

Consider 2 vectors
Vector B is expressed by
B  Bx iˆ  B y ˆj

Then C  A  B
C  ( Ax iˆ  Ay ˆj )  ( Bx iˆ  B y ˆj )
C  ( Ax  Bx )iˆ  ( Ay  B y ) ˆj
So C x  Ax  Bx C y  Ay  B y

if the vector do not lie in the xy-plane, then a third component is introduced, k̂ which points
in the direction of the + z-axis.
Then one can write A  Ax iˆ  Ay ˆj  Az kˆ
And the magnitude of A is A  Ax2  Ay2  Az2

Strictly speaking, vectors exist separately from any coordinate systems. As vectors are
geometric objects, we do not need to define a coordinate system in order to talk about
vectors—or even to perform most operations on vectors. For example, consider the triple of
numbers: number of apples, number of bananas, and number of carrots you have. Say that you
calculate the triple in one coordinate system and get (1,2,3). If you rotate your coordinate
system, and recalculate, you will have (1,2,3) again. Thus, the triple does not have the most
important property of a vector -- that is transform like the coordinate system.

Nevertheless, it is often convenient to introduce a coordinate system. In three dimensions,

for many problems the rectangular, or Cartesian coordinate system (after French
mathematician René Descartes) turns out to be convenient, and this coordinate system can be
defined in terms of unit vectors.

A unit vector is a vector pointing in a given direction with a magnitude of one. Essentially, it
merely indicates direction. In a Cartesian system the three unit vectors are called i, j, and k
(or, in handwriting, with a little "hat" on top, as , , and ). Colloquially, you might refer to
the directions of the unit vectors as "east", "north", and "up". One could just have easily
chosen i as up, j as east, and k as north. In choosing i, j, and k, once i and j are chosen, k must
point to a particular direction, so that a common convention called "right-hand rule" holds.

Mathematically, this can be compactly expressed as,

kˆ  iˆ x ˆj ,
but we will expand more on this as we describe "cross products" later on.
Unit vectors are generally chosen to be orthogonal. That is, each unit vector is perpendicular
to each of the others. While unit vectors do not need to be orthogonal, working with a
coordinate system defined by orthogonal unit vectors will be convenient in most cases. There
are two other major coordinate systems used in physics— cylindrical coordinates and spherical
coordinates. These will be introduced at a later time as necessary.

Vector Components
Every vector may be expressed as the sum of its n unit vectors.
A  a x iˆ  a y ˆj  a z kˆ
The quantities ax, ay, and az are called the vector components of vector A. Sometimes they are
represented simply as an ordered triple (e.g. (ax,ay,az)) especially when the choice and ordering
of three unit vectors are not ambiguous.

Vector Algebra
Negation

Illustration of vector negation and scalar multiplication

 A  ( a x iˆ  a y ˆj  a z kˆ)   a x iˆ  a y ˆj  a z kˆ
Considering a vector represented graphically by an arrow, the negative of a vector would be
represented by a vector of the same length but opposite direction.

Rules for vector algebra

   
1. A  B  B  A (Cumulative law for addition)
 
2. mA  Am (Cumulative law for multiplication)
3.  A  B   C  A   B  C 
     
(Associative law for addition)
4. m nA   mn  A
 
(Associative law for distribution)
  
5.  m  n  A  mA  nA (Distributive law for addition)
6. m A  B   mA  mB
   
(Distributive law for multiplication).

Addition of vector

Illustration of head-to-tail addition

A  B  ( a x iˆ  a y ˆj  a z kˆ )  (bx iˆ  b y ˆj  bz kˆ)
 (a x  bx )iˆ  ( a y  b y ) ˆj  (a z  b z ) kˆ
Two vectors can be added graphically by placing the tail of the second vector (here, B)
coincidental with the tip of the first vector (A). The resultant vector A + B is the vector
drawn from the tail of A to the tip of B.

Example:
Vector A is described algebraically as (-3, 5), while vector B is (4, -2). Find the magnitude and
direction of the sum C of the vectors A and B.
Solution
A  3iˆ  5 ˆj B  4iˆ  2 ˆj

C  A  B    3  4  iˆ   5  2  ˆj  1iˆ  3 ˆj Cx 1 Cy  3

C C x2  C y2  12  3 2  3.16
Cy
  tan 1  tan 1 3  71.56 o
Cx
Multiplying Vectors
There are three ways in which vectors can be multiplied:
1. Scalar Multiplication
k A  ka x iˆ  ka y ˆj  ka z kˆ
Note that vector negation is merely multiplication by a scalar, where that scalar is -1. A scaled
vector represented graphically would point in the same direction as the original vector but
have its magnitude scaled by a factor of k.

2. Dot Product
When we multiply two vectors, we can either apply a multiplication rule that produces a scalar
as the end result, or one that produces a vector as the end result. The first one that
produces a scalar is called dot product. In mathematical texts, this is often called inner
product, and some older texts will refer to this as scalar product (not to be confused with
scalar multiplication); they are all the same. Dot product has all the usual properties of
products, such as associativity, commutativity, and the distributive property. Geometrically,
dot product is defined as:
A  B  AB cos Component of along direction

A A
  B 
B Component of along direction B
where  is the angle between A & B . Note that since cos 0  1 , if A is parallel to B , then
o

A  B  AB cos 0o  AB . On the other hand, since cos 90  0 if A is perpendicular to B , then

o

A  B  AB cos 90o  0 . Using this as the guiding rule, we find below relationship:
iˆ  iˆ  ˆj  ˆj  kˆ  kˆ  1
iˆ  ˆj  iˆ  kˆ  ˆj  kˆ  0 .
Using this, we can define dot product in terms of component vectors as follows:

A  B  ( Ax iˆ  Ay ˆj  Az kˆ)  ( Bxiˆ  By ˆj  Bz kˆ)

A  B  Ax B x  Ay B y  Az B z

You are encouraged to expand out the multiplication explicitly, using the distributive property
and find which terms cancel to zero and which products become 1.

3. Cross Product
The second multiplication rule for product of two vectors yields yet another vector. This
multiplication rule is a very special one—in fact, it is a special property of 3-dimensional space
that we can define a vector multiplication is this way and still obtain a vector. This rule will
not work when limited to 2-D, and in any dimensions greater than 3, an extension of this rule
will not result in another vector (cf. dot product can be naturally extended or limited to any
dimensions to produce a scalar). This multiplication is called cross product, and in other texts,
you may find terms outer product and vector product. The product can be defined with the
two rules, first specifying the product vector's direction, and the second specifying its
magnitude.
A x B is perpendicular to A and B (that is, perpendicular to the plane defined by these two

vectors). This leaves two possible directions along the line perpendicular to the plane. One of
the two directions is called by a "right-hand rule": Hold out index finger, middle finger, and
the thumb so that they are all perpendicular to each other. Let the index finger point towards
direction of A , and the middle finger towards B . Then the thumb points towards the
direction of A x B . The ordering is important here (note exchanging A and B makes the
thumb point in the opposite direction).
Ax B  AB sin  , where θ is again the angle between A and B .

The vector product of two vectors produces a third vector whose magnitude is C  AB sin 
But from the figure, A sin  is or B sin  is Component of along direction

A x B  AB sin  A Component of along direction

 B 
Therefore, the magnitude of the Vector Product can be defined as the product of the
B
magnitude of the first vector and the component of the second vector perpendicular to the
first vector or vise versa.

If   0o , then Ax B  AB sin 0o  0
If   90o , then Ax B  AB sin 90o  AB

The direction of C is perpendicular to the plane that contains A and C using the right
hand rule.

Applying this definition to unit vectors again, we find following relationships:

iˆ x iˆ  ˆj x ˆj  kˆ x kˆ  0
iˆ x ˆj   ˆj x iˆ  kˆ
ˆj x kˆ   kˆ x ˆj  iˆ
kˆ x iˆ  iˆ x kˆ  ˆj
And in terms of components, A x B  ( Ax iˆ  Ay ˆj  Az kˆ) x ( B x iˆ  B y ˆj  B z kˆ) we have (after a
tedious algebra):

A x B  ( Ay B z  Az B y )iˆ  ( Az B x  Ax B z ) ˆj  ( Ax B y  Ay B x ) kˆ .
It turns out we can write this complicated relationship as a determinant of a 3 x 3 matrix:
ˆ
i ˆ
j kˆ
 
A x B  Ax Ay Az
Bx By Bz
Note:The order of the vector multiplication is important. It can not be interchanged because of the
result of the directions as shown above, that is c  c or a x b  (b x a )