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Definition:: Head Tail

A vector is a quantity that has both magnitude and direction. It can be represented by a bold letter or with an arrow over the letter. Vectors can be classified as equal, like, opposite, unlike, unit, null, proper, co-initial, coplanar and orthogonal based on their magnitude and direction. Vectors can be added and multiplied using graphical and analytical methods. The addition follows the triangle and parallelogram laws while multiplication can yield a scalar or vector product depending on whether the result is a number or another vector.

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198 views4 pages

Definition:: Head Tail

A vector is a quantity that has both magnitude and direction. It can be represented by a bold letter or with an arrow over the letter. Vectors can be classified as equal, like, opposite, unlike, unit, null, proper, co-initial, coplanar and orthogonal based on their magnitude and direction. Vectors can be added and multiplied using graphical and analytical methods. The addition follows the triangle and parallelogram laws while multiplication can yield a scalar or vector product depending on whether the result is a number or another vector.

Uploaded by

GG
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Definition :

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

respectively. Since they are along the mutually perpendicular directions,


they are called orthogonal unit vectors.
Null vector or zero vector : A vector, whose magnitude is zero, is called a null vector or
zero vector.
Proper vector : All the non-zero vectors are called proper vectors.
Co-initial vectors : Vectors having the same starting point are called co-initial vectors.
Coplanar vectors : Vectors lying in the same plane are called coplanar vectors.

Head
Tail
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Resolution of Vectors : A vector directed at an angle with the co-ordinate axis, can be resolved
into its components along the axes. This process of splitting a vector into its components is
known as resolution of a vector.

Rectangular components of a vector:

When a vector is resolved into its components and the components
are perpendicular to each other, the components are called
rectangular components of that vector.
Vector

can be resolved into

components along x and y


axis respectively, such that


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

parallel to itself so that its tail is at the head


of the vector

, then, we join the tail of

to the head of

. This line represents a vector


, that is, the sum of the vectors

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

, we bring their tails to a common origin O as shown in Fig. Then


we draw a line from the head of

parallel to

and another line from the head of


parallel to

to complete a parallelogram OQSP. Now we join the point of the


intersection of these two lines to the origin O. The resultant vector

is directed from the


common origin O along the diagonal (OS) of the parallelogram.


( )
(

) ( )



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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

is defined as the product of the magnitudes of

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

is defined as the product of the magnitudes of

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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