Vectors
PowerPoint® Lectures for
University Physics, Thirteenth Edition
– Hugh D. Young and Roger A. Freedman
Lectures by Wayne Anderson
Copyright
Copyright©©2012
2012Pearson
PearsonEducation
EducationInc.
Inc.
Standards and units
• Length, time, and mass are three fundamental
quantities of physics.
• The International System (SI for Système
International) is the most widely used system of
units.
• In SI units, length is measured in meters, time in
seconds, and mass in kilograms.
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1
Unit prefixes
• Table shows some larger and smaller units for the
fundamental quantities.
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Uncertainty and significant figures
• The uncertainty of a measured quantity
is indicated by its number of
significant figures.
• For multiplication and division, the
answer can have no more significant
figures than the smallest number of
significant figures in the factors.
• For addition and subtraction, the
number of significant figures is
determined by the term having the
fewest digits to the right of the decimal
point.
• As this train mishap illustrates, even a
small percent error can have
spectacular results!
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2
Unit consistency and conversions
• An equation must be dimensionally consistent. Terms to be added
or equated must always have the same units. (Be sure you’re
adding “apples to apples.”)
• Always carry units through calculations.
• How many meters in a light year?
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Vectors and scalars
• A scalar quantity can be described by a single
number.
• A vector quantity has both a magnitude and a
direction in space, or…
• In this book, a vector quantity is represented
in
boldface italic type with an arrow over it: A.
• The magnitude of A is written as A or |A|.
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3
Adding two vectors graphically
• Two vectors may be added graphically using either the parallelogram
method or the head-to-tail method.
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Components of a vector
• Adding vectors graphically provides limited accuracy. Vector
components provide a general method for adding vectors.
• Any vector can be represented by an x-component Ax and a y-
component Ay.
• Use trigonometry to find the components of a vector: Ax = Acos θ and
Ay = Asin θ, where θ is measured from the +x-axis toward the +y-axis.
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4
Calculations using components
• We can use the components of a vector to find its magnitude
and direction:
• We can use the components of a
set of vectors to find the components
of their sum:
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Unit vectors
• A unit vector has a magnitude
of 1 with no units.
• The unit vector î points in the
+x-direction, points in the +y-
direction, and points in the
+z-direction.
• Any vector can be expressed
in terms of its components as
A =Axî+ Ay + Az .
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5
The scalar product
• The scalar product
(also called the “dot
product”) of two
vectors is
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Calculating a scalar product
• In terms of components,
• Example shows how to calculate a scalar product in two ways.
[Insert figure 1.27 here]
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6
The vector product
• The vector
product (“cross
product”) of
two vectors has
magnitude
and the right-
hand rule gives
its direction.
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Calculating the vector product
• Use ABsin to find the
magnitude and the right-hand
rule to find the direction.
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