Scribd
Upload
125 views1 page

1.06 Unit Vectors PDF

To create a unit vector from a vector, you multiply the vector by the reciprocal of its magnitude. This "shortens" the vector to have a length of 1 while maintaining its original direction. When working with vectors in Cartesian form (x, y), both the x and y components must be multiplied by the same scalar (the reciprocal of the magnitude) to keep the triangle formed by the vector sides similar. Unit vectors are useful for communicating the horizontal and vertical components of a vector.

Uploaded by

Maxwell
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
125 views1 page

1.06 Unit Vectors PDF

To create a unit vector from a vector, you multiply the vector by the reciprocal of its magnitude. This "shortens" the vector to have a length of 1 while maintaining its original direction. When working with vectors in Cartesian form (x, y), both the x and y components must be multiplied by the same scalar (the reciprocal of the magnitude) to keep the triangle formed by the vector sides similar. Unit vectors are useful for communicating the horizontal and vertical components of a vector.

Uploaded by

Maxwell
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
You are on page 1/ 1

1.

06: Unit vectors

• The unit vector of a vector has the same direction but is only 1 unit long.
• To get the unit vector, you need to ‘shorten’ your vector by applying scalar multiplication.
• The scalar is the reciprocal of its magnitude.

Why?

|𝑢| = √22 + 32 = √13

Vector 𝒖 is √13 units long. To ‘make √13 go to 1’, you can multiply it by its reciprocal.
1
√13 × =1
√13
So, multiplying by a vector by the reciprocal of its magnitude will shorten its length to be 1 unit.

Working with vectors in Cartesian form (𝒙, 𝒚)

Thinking of the magnitude as the hypotenuse, and its components as


lengths of shorter sides, all sides need to be ‘shortened’ by the same
factor for the triangle to remain similar. The triangle needs to remain
similar so that the angles stay the same.

To ‘shorten’ a vector in Cartesian form, you can multiply by a scalar.


The scalar you apply to make the hypotenuse (length) 1, is the same
that needs to be applied to shorter sides (𝑥 and y). So the scalar needs
to be the reciprocal of the vector’s magnitude.

For the position vector (2,3) above, its unit vector can be expressed
as…
1 2 3
̂=
𝒖 (2,3) = ( , )
√13 √13 √13
Note: The ‘hat’ on 𝒖 indicates it is a unit vector.

The formula
1 𝒖
̂=
𝒖 𝒖=
|𝒖| |𝒖|
Using unit vectors to communicate horizontal and vertical components

When writing a vector in Cartesian form, you note the direction and distance you travel horizontally (𝑥) and
vertically (𝑦). Therefore, the numbers you write down have a magnitude and direction. Therefore, they can be
thought of as vectors themselves.

A unit vector in the direction of 𝑥 is symbolized by 𝒊̂ or 𝒊.

A unit vector in the direction of 𝑦 is symbolized by 𝒋̂ or 𝒋. 𝒖

So 𝒖 = 2𝒊 + 3𝒋 when writing the vector with 𝒊 and 𝒋 components.

You might also like