MODULE NAME: MATRICES AND COMPLEX NUMBERS

TOPIC: VECTORS
C. Amakutsi 2020
_________________________________________________________________________________

DEFINITION: A VECTOR is a physical quantity with both magnitude (length) and direction

e.g. velocity, acceleration.

A SCALAR quantity has magnitude only e.g. speed, temperature.

Vectors are represented by directed line segment or arrows in 2-space or 3-space.

Consider a line segment, with initial point and terminal point ( )

The components of vector ⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗ are obtained by subtracting as below:

Components of ⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗ Terminal point – Initial point .

The norm, length or magnitude of vector ⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗ is given by

||⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗ || √

Let ( ) be any vector in 3-space. Then the magnitude of is given by

|| || √

Arithmetic operations on vectors

If and are any vectors in 3-space, then

1)
2)
3) If is any scalar (number) and is any vector, then

Examples

(a) i) Find the components of a vector with initial point and terminal point

(ii) Find the length of vector ⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗

Answer: i) ⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗ —

ii) ||⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗ || √ √

(b) Find a vector of magnitude 10 that has the same direction as vector

Solution: Let the vector being asked be

Then (same direction, parallel / scalar multiples)

|| ||

|| || || ||

|| ||

NB: If two vectors are in the opposite direction, then (negative).

i.e.

DEFINITIONS: A zero vector is a vector whose components are zeros. .

A unit vector is any vector over its norm. i.e. || ||

← a unit vector in the same direction as

|| ||
← a unit vector in the opposite direction as

A unit vector has norm (length or magnitude) equal to 1.

Examples of unit vectors are etc.

Let Prove that || ||

is a unit vector.

Solution:
|| ||
( )
√ √ √ √
The norm || || √( ) ( ) ( )
|| ||
√ √ √

√ √

Hence proven.

Exercise: If , show that || ||

is a unit vector.

Dot product

DEFINITION: The dot product of any two vectors and in 2-space or 3-space, with
an angle θ between them, is defined by

|| |||| ||
{

or in terms of components: If and are any

vectors in 3-space, then
← scalar (number)

The angle between vectors and is given by ( || |||| ||

).

Note: 1. If then .
2. is an acute angle, if
3. is an obtuse angle, if

DEFINITIONS: Orthogonal vectors: Two vectors are orthogonal (perpendicular) if

or .

Parallel vectors: Two vectors are parallel if they are scalar multiple of
each other or if is or .
Examples

(a) If and find the angle between them.

Solution: ( || |||| ||
)

( ) ( )
√ √ √

(b) Let and . Find if

(i) and are orthogonal

(ii) and are parallel.
(iii) the angle between and is

Solution: (i) (dot product = 0)

(ii) Method 1: ( scalar multiples of each other)

( ) ( ) and

Then and hence ( ) .

Method 2: or .

|| |||| || ( )

√ √ | Square both sides

 √
(iii)

|| |||| ||

√
√ √ ( ) | Square both sides

Moving the terms to the right gives the quadratic equation:

Exercise: Use the quadratic formula to find the values of and check which value

satisfies the quadratic equation

Vector projection

Definition: Let and be vectors. The vector projection of onto , is the vector produced
when a vector is resolved into two components vectors, one vector parallel to
and the other vector perpendicular to The parallel vector is then the vector projection.

Thus the vector projection, which is the parallel vector, is given by the formula:

( vector component of along or parallel to )

|| ||

The other vector perpendicular (orthogonal) to is given by

|| ||
.

Example

Consider vectors and

(a) Find a vector component of along .

(b) Find the vector component of orthogonal to .

Solution:
|| || √
.

( ) ( )

The length of the vector projection is given by

|| || |||| || √ ( ) units
||

| | | | | |
or || || || || √
units
√ √

Properties of the dot product

If and are any vectors in 2-space or 3-space and is any scalar (number), then

(a) (commutative law)

(b) (distributive law)

(c)

(d) || || ; || ||

Proof of (b)

Let and

Left Hand side: +

Right Hand side

Example. Prove: || || || || .

Proof: Method 1: Using dot product property that || || ; || || , we have

LHS: || || || ||

|| || || || || || || ||

|| || || || || || || ||

RHS.

Method 2: Using vector components approach:

LHS: Let and

and .

Then || || || ||

(√ ) (√ )

Subtracting like terms gives

RHS

Triangle inequality of vectors

If and are any vectors, then

|| || || || || || .
 Cross product of vectors

Definition: The cross product of any two vectors and is defined as the
vector perpendicular to both and

i.e and

In terms of components: If and are any vectors in

3-space, then is defined in terms of the determinant of a matrix as

| | | | | | | |

← vector

NB: The cross product is a vector, with the direction given by the right hand rule
and the magnitude (length) equal to the area of a parallelogram spanned by
vectors and .

Example

Let and Find a vector orthogonal to both vectors

and

Solution: From the definition, a vector perpendicular to both and is

| | ( — )

Checking: and
NB: The area of the parallelogram is derived from Lagrange’s Identity, which is given by

|| || || || || ||

You remember || |||| || Substituting in Lagrange’s identity:

|| || || || || || ( || |||| || )

|| || || || || || || ||

|| || || ||

Since , we have || || || || || || .

Taking square root both sides gives || || || |||| || .

Therefore

|| ||

or

|| |||| || if is given.

The angle between the two vectors and is obtained from the equation

|| || || |||| ||
by making the subject.

|| ||
( )
|| |||| ||

Example 1. Find the area of the parallelogram determined by vectors and

Solution:

| | ( ( — ) )
Area || || || || √

Example 2. Use cross product concept to find the angle between vectors
and

Solution:

| | ( ( — ) )

|| || √
( ) ( )
|| |||| || √ √

|| ||

Properties of the cross product

If and are any vectors in 3-space and is any scalar, then

(a)
(b)

(c) {

(d)
(e)
(f)

(g) {

(h) ← scalar and

(i) || || || || || ||
Proof of (b). Let , and

LHS:

| | ( | | | | | |)

RHS:

| | ( | | | | | |)

(( – ))

Since LHS RHS, proof is done.

Scalar triple product

If , and are any vectors in 3-space,

then the number (scalar)

is called scalar triple product.

The scalar triple product is used to calculate the volume of the parallelepiped by using the

following formula

Volume | | | | | |
Example

Find the volume of the parallelepiped determined by adjacent vectors ,

and

Solution: Volume | |

| |

Volume | | | | .

Note: | |

| |

| |

Clockwise

| |

| |

| |

Anti-clockwise

| |

| |

| |

_________________________________________________________________________________