Chapter 3: Physics
- Physical quantities that have both numerical and directional properties
3.1 COORDINATE SYSTEMS
- many aspects of physics involve a description of a location in space, and the Cartesian coordinate
systems are used to represent the object’s position in 2D
o Cartesian coordinates are also called rectangular coordinates
- Theres also the plane polar coordinates (r, θ) , where r is the distance from the origin to the point
having Cartesian coordinates (x, y) and θ is the angle between a fixed axis and a line drawn from the
origin to the point
o Fixed axis is usually the positive x axis, θ is measured counterclockwise
- Sin θ= y/r
- Cos θ= x/r
- x= rcos θ
- y= rsin θ
- r= √ x 2+ y 2
- tan θ= y/x
3.2 VECTOR AND SCALAR QUANTITIES
- a scalar quantity is completely specified by a single value with an appropriate unit and has no
direction
- a vector quantity is completely specified by a number and appropriate units and a direction
o displacement is an example
o A or⃗ A is how a vector is represented
o A |, has physical units (like meters for displacement and
Magnitude is represented by the |⃗
meters per second for velocity
3.3 SOME PROPERTIES OF VECTORS
Equality of Two Vectors
- If two vectors are defined as equal if they have the same magnitude and if they point in the same
direction (i.e. they are parallel lines)
Adding Vectors
- If R = A + B, then R= resultant vector, and it is the one drawn from the tail of A to the tip of B
(headtail method)
R
⃗ B
⃗
A
⃗
- When two vectors are added, the sum is independent of the order of the addition, leading to the
A+ ⃗
commutative law of addition: ⃗ B= ⃗B+ ⃗ A
- When tree or more vectors are added, the same thing applies, leading to the associative law of
addition
- Same applies to scalar quantities
Negative Vector
- A is defined as the vector that when added
The negative of the vector ⃗ A gives 0 to the vector sum;
⃗
same magnitude but point in opposite directions
Subtracting Vectors
- A + (-⃗
⃗ B) is how you subtract vectors
Multiplying a Vector by a Scalar
- When vector ⃗A is multiplied by a positive scalar quantity m, the product m ⃗
A is a vector that has the
same direction as ⃗A and magnitude mA
- If vector A is multiplied by a negative scalar quantity –m, the product –mA is directed opposite A.
o EXAMPLES:
5A is a vector 5x as long as A and points in the same direction as A
-1/3A is a vector 1/3 the length of A and points in the opposite direction as A
3.4 COMPONENTS OF A VECTOR AND UNIT VECTORS
- for high accuracy calculations, graphical method is BAD
- instead, use projections of vectors along coordinate axes
- projections are called the components or rectangular components of the vector
- if you have a vector A lying in the xy plane making an angle θ with the x axis, then there are two other
component vectors Ax and Ay, the letter signifying which axis it is parallel to
- these vectors form a right triangle, with A being the hypotenuse, and see that A= A x + Ay
- components can be positive or negative, positive if facing the positive axis, negative if facing the
negative axis
- components of A
o Ax=A cos θ
o Ay= A sin θ
2 2
o A= √A +A
x y
o The sign of the components depends on the angle
Unit Vectors
- A unit vector is a dimensionless vector having a magnitude of exactly 1.
- Used to specify a given direction and have no other physical significance
- i^ ,^j, k^ is used to descrive unit vectors pointing in the positive directions x, y, and z
- The magnitude = 1
- Vector A= Ax i + Ay j
- Position vector r= xi + xj
- If one wants to add A and B, they just add the components together, so R= (Axi + Ayi) + (Bxi + Byi)
- The magnitude of R= √ ( A x i+ A y i)+(B x i+ B y i)
