5 Vectors

A vector is a set of numbers used to carry information. In graphics, vectors represent

the position of points in space, the orientation of surfaces, and the behaviour of light
on solid and transparent objects.

The numbers that make up a vector are called its elements. The number of elements
in a vector tell us how many dimensions of space the vector belongs to. For instance,
6
4[]
is a vector in 2-dimensional space.

A vector conveys the idea of action through a line. Starting at any point on the page,
a vector can be drawn as an arrowed line, the length and direction of which is given
by the numbers.

In two dimensions, read the elements as;

[ ]
¿ 6 = 6 units from left to right
¿ 4 6 units from bottom to top

That is:

Quantities which have only a size are called scalars. You can think of scalars as just
ordinary, stand-alone numbers.

In physics, vectors stand for quantities that have both a size (called a magnitude) and
a direction, such as
1. Velocity (e.g. 70mph North)
2. Force (e.g. 10 Newtons upwards)
3. Pressure (e.g. 5 Pascals downwards)
and the virtual world has to follow the same rules as the real one- if we want our
graphics and animations to be realistic.

When a vector is drawn as an arrowed line, its direction is obvious. Its magnitude is
equal to the length of the line. Magnitude and direction are all you need to know to
specify a vector completely. So, as long as two vectors have the same length and run
in the same direction, they are the same vector- even if they don’t coincide (lie atop
each other).
These vectors are equal even though they don’t have the same start and end points.
This means that a vector can be moved around the plane and remain the same vector.

If the vector were, say, velocity, then the direction could be given in terms of a the
points of the compass. So e.g. 50mph North-East would be a vector 50 units long
running exactly between North and East;

But it is preferable to put the vector into a coordinate system and find the length and
direction in terms of coordinates and angles.

Coordinates

We use what are called rectangular coordinates, which are distances up, across and
away from some central point called the origin of the coordinates.

In rectangular coordinates, the vector can be drawn as an arrowed line from the
origin of the space (the point (0,0)) to the point (6,4);
A vector that starts at the origin is called the position vector of its end point; so the
vector above is the position vector of the point (6,4). But recall that a vector can be
moved around the plane and stay the same vector.

Similarly the vector

[]
6
4
9

Is a three-dimensional vector that can be drawn as an arrowed line from (0,0,0) to the
point (6,4,9). But if it was moved around the plane, it would still be the same vector.

Vectors of 4 dimensions and more can’t be drawn, but they really just entail more
information. Most of computer graphics is done in 2D, 3D and 4D space.
Vector Notation

A vector is usually signified by an italicised letter. So for instance the 2D vectors s, t

might be

[ ] [ ]
s= ¿ 2 , t= ¿ 4
¿4 ¿3

the 3D vectors u, v might be:

[] [ ]
1 ¿8
u= 2 , v = ¿ 2 .
3 ¿2

This is handy when we consider vector operations (adding and multiplying vectors).

Measuring the Magnitude of a Vector

The magnitude of vector s (length of the line, remember) is given the symbol |s| and is
found by taking the square root of the sum of the squares of its elements. That is,
|s|=√ 22+ 4 2=√ 2+ 16= √18=4.243 (to 3 d.p.)
This is just Pythagoras’ Theorem, with the elements as sides of the triangle and the
vector on the hypotenuse.

Similarly for vector u, the magnitude is |u| and

|u|=√ 12+ 22+3 2=√ 1+ 4+ 9= √14=3.742 (3 d.p.)

Exercise 1. What is the magnitude of each of the following vectors?

[] [ ] [ ]
2
1. a = , b =
8
−3
7
,c=
15
21

[] [ ] []
9 16 −5
2. d = −8 , e = 27 f = 31
12 −12 −6

Measuring the Direction of a Vector

We express the direction of a 2D vector as an angle made to the x axis. This requires a
bit of geometry.

Notice that the elements of a vector lie at right angles (90) to each other. For
instance, gives the triangle
Which makes the angle  to the x axis. By trigonometry,

α =tan−1 ( 42 )=63.435 ∘
(3 d.p.)

So we can describe the vector s = as having magnitude |s| = 4.243 at angle 63.435.

Not that this doesn’t give any more information than “2 right 4 up”.

For 3 dimensions we could specify the angle made to each axis, but that’s a lot of
additional information. As long as we bear in mind that a vector has a particular
dimension, it’s best to investigate it in terms of the angles it makes to other vectors,
and the plane it lies in with them. We’ll return to this when considering the dot
product of two vectors.

Vector Operations

Vectors can be added, multiplied by a scalar (an ordinary number, remember), or

multiplied together in two particular ways.

Vector Addition

Two vectors of the same number of elements can be added just by summing their
elements, e.g. in two dimensions;

[ ][ ][
s+t= ¿ 2 + ¿ 4 = ¿ 2+4 = ¿ 6
¿4 ¿3 ¿ 4 +3 ¿7 ][ ]
Graphically, addition of vectors means “first move along the first vector then move
along the second vector”. This tells that, if we took the vector s, and drew t from the
head of s, then the sum- call it w- would be the vector drawn from the tail of s to the
head of t.
In three dimensions;

[][ ] [ ] [ ]
1 ¿8 ¿ 1+8 ¿9
u+ v= 2 + ¿ 2 = ¿ 2+2 = ¿ 4 =w
3 ¿2 ¿ 3+2 ¿5

Exercise 2. Add the following vectors. Illustrate on graph paper.

[ ][ ] [ ][ ]
−4 −5 7 −3
1. a)[][] [ ][]
2 2
+
8 8
, b)
6
−6 4
+
5
, c) 5
−6
+ 3 d) 9
7 10
+ 0
8

Scalar Multiplication

We can multiply a vector by a scalar by multiplying each of the elements that make up
the vector.

[ ][
¿3 ¿ 3× 3][ ]
3 t=3 × ¿ 4 = ¿ 3 × 4 = ¿ 12
¿9
If we look at this graphically, we can see that multiplying by a scalar affects only the
magnitude of a vector, not its direction…

…unless the scalar is negative, in which case the direction is reversed.

Exercise 3. Multiply the following vectors by the scalar and draw both the new and
original vectors.
 [] []
−4 7
1. a) 3 [] [ ]
3
8
, b) 2
3.5
4.25
, c) 3.5 5 d) −1 9
−6 10

Special Products of Vectors

Vectors can be multiplied in three ways that don’t bear much resemblance to the
multiplication of ordinary, scalar numbers. These are called the dot product, cross
product and triple product of vectors. But to understand these, we must first look at
matrices.