Definition:: Head Tail
Definition:: Head Tail
A vector quantity is a quantity that has both magnitude and direction and obeys the triangle law
of addition or equivalently the parallelogram law of addition.
Representation of vector: A vector is represented either by bold letter or with an arrow over it
The magnitude of the vector
is represented by |
|
Types of Vectors:
Equal vectors : Two vectors are said to be equal if they have the same magnitude and
same direction.
Like vectors : Two vectors are said to be like vectors, if they have same direction but
different magnitudes.
Opposite vectors: The vectors of same magnitude but opposite in direction are called
opposite vectors.
Unlike vectors : The vectors of different magnitude acting in opposite directions are
called unlike vectors.
Unit vector : A vector having unit magnitude is called a unit vector. It is also defined as
a vector divided by its own magnitude. A unit vector in the direction of a vector A is
written as
Thus, a vector can be written as the product of its magnitude and unit vector along its
direction.
Orthogonal unit vectors : There are three most common unit vectors in the positive
directions of X, Y and Z axes of Cartesian coordinate system, denoted
by
Any position vector
Magnitude of
can be calculated as
and the angle can be calculated as
)
In three dimension :
Magnitude and direction of the resultant of two vectors
in terms of their
magnitudes and angle between them:
*Note: The component of a vector in any direction can be obtained by the product of
magnitude of the vector and the cosine of the angle, which the vector makes with that
particular direction.
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Addition of Vectors :
Graphical Method :
Triangular Method of vector addition (Head to Tail method): If two vectors are
represented in magnitude and direction by the two adjacent sides of a triangle taken in
order, then their resultant is the closing side of the triangle taken in the reverse order.
To find the sum
, we place vector
to the head of
and
.
Parallelogram law of vector addition (Tail to Tail method) : If two vectors acting at a
point are represented in magnitude and direction by the two adjacent sides of a
parallelogram, then their resultant is represented in magnitude and direction by the
diagonal passing through the common tail of the two vectors.
To find the sum
parallel to
parallel to
( )
(
) ( )
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Product of Vectors :
Scalar Product (Dot product) : Product of two vectors which give resultant as a scalar
quantity.
The scalar product of
and
and
multiplied by the cosine of the smaller angle between them.
Properties of Scalar product :
( )
( )
Dot product of two parallel vectors = product of the magnitude of two vectors
( ) Product of two vectors which give resultant as a
vector quantity.
The vector product of
and
and
multiplied by the sine of the smaller angle between them.
( )
Cross product of two parallel vectors = 0
In terms of their components
| (
) (
) (
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