ALLEN CHRISTIAN S.

SALVATEIRRA CIV 224

INTRODUCTION TO STATICS 2.0

SCALARS AND VECTORS- We use to kind of quantities in mechanics; the vector and scalar

1.Scalar quantities – those with which only a magnitude is associated (ex. time, volume, density, speed, energy, and
mass)

2. Vector quantities – possess direction as well as magnitude (ex. displacement, velocity, acceleration, force, moment,
and momentum)

EXAMPLE OF VECTORS

FREE VECTOR - A free vector is one whose action is not confined to or associated with a unique line in space. For
example, if a body moves without rotation, then the movement or displacement of any point in the body may be taken
as a vector.

SLIDING VECTOR - A sliding vector has a unique line of action in space but not a unique point of application. For example,
when an external force acts on a rigid body, the force can be applied at any point along its line of action without
changing its effect on the body, and thus it is a sliding vector.

FIXED VECTOR – A fixed vector is one for which a unique point of application is specified. The action of a force on a
deformable or nonrigid body must be specified by a fixed vector at the point of application of the force.

FUNDAMENTAL PROPERTIES OF VECTORS

A knowledge of vectors is a prerequisite for the study of statics. In this article, we describe the fundamental properties of
vectors, with subsequent articles discussing some of the more important elements of vector algebra.

Because scalars possess only magnitudes, they are real numbers that can be positive, negative, or zero. On the other
hand, force, velocity, and displacement are examples of physical quantities that are vectors. The magnitude of a vector is
always taken to be a nonnegative number.

ALGEBRAIC NOTATIONS

FOR SCALARS: written as italicized English or Greek letters - for example, t for time and θ for angle;

FOR VECTORS: written as boldface letters - for example, F for force; The more common notations are A, A , A , and A.

FOR MAGNITUDE: the magnitude of a vector A is denoted as I A I or simply as A (italic).

VECTORS AS DIRECTED LINE SEGMENT

Any vector A can be represented geometrically as a directed line segment (an arrow), as shown in the figure. The
magnitude of A is denoted by A, and the direction of A is specified by the sense of the arrow and the angle that it makes
with a fixed reference line.
 EQUALITY OF VECTORS

Two vectors A and B are said to be equal, written as A = B, if (1) their magnitudes are equal -- that is, A = B, and (2) they
have the same direction.

UNIT VECTORS

A unit vector is a dimensionless vector with magnitude 1. Therefore, if λ represents a unit vector (I λ I = 1) with the same
direction as A, we can write 𝐀=𝐴λ

SCALAR-VECTOR MULTIPLICATION

The multiplication of a scalar m and a vector A, written as mA or as Am, is defined as follows.

1. If m is positive, mA is the vector of magnitude mA that has the same direction as A.

2. If m is negative, mA is the vector of magnitude lm|A that is oppositely directed to A.

3. If m = 0, mA (called the null or zero vector) is a vector of zero magnitude and arbitrary direction.

THE PARALLELOGRAM LAW FOR ADDITION

The addition of two vectors A and B is defined to be the vector C that results from the geometric construction shown in
the figure. The operation depicted in the figure, written as A + B = C, is called the parallelogram law for addition.

The vectors A and B are referred to as components of C, and C is called the resultant of A and B. The process of replacing
a resultant with its components is called resolution.

THE TRIANGLE LAW

An equivalent statement of the parallelogram law is the triangle law, which is shown in the figure. Here the tail of B is
placed at the tip of A, and C is the vector that completes the triangle, drawn from the tail of A to the tip of B. The result
is identical if the tail of A is placed at the tip of B and C is drawn from the tail of B to the tip of A.

ADDITION OF VECTORS

Addition is commutative: E + F = F + E Addition is associative: E + (F + G) = (E + F) + G

SUBTRACTION OF VECTORS

The subtraction of two vectors A and B, written as A - B, is defined as A - B =A + (-B).

 REPRESENTATION OF VECTORS USING RECTANGULAR COMPONENTS

In engineering applications, it is customary to describe vectors using their rectangular components and then to perform
vector operations, such as addition, in terms of these components.

RECTANGULAR COMPONENTS AND DIRECTION COSINES

It is a right-handed, rectangular Cartesian coordinate system. To test for right-handedness,

curl the fingers of your right hand and extend your thumb, as shown in the figure. The
coordinate axes now should line up with your hand as follows: the palm is parallel to the
x-direction, the fingers point in the y-direction, and the thumb lies in the z-direction.

• Base vectors – i, j, and k

RECTANGULAR COMPONENTS AND DIRECTION COSINES

If a vector A is resolved into its rectangular components, as illustrated in the figure, it

can be written as

where Axi, Ayj, and Azk are the vector components of A. Meanwhile, the scalar
components of A are

where θx, θy, and θz, are the angles between A and the positive coordinate axes.

The magnitude of A is related to its scalar components by:

The direction of A is specified by its direction cosines defined as

The scalar components of A now becomes

is a unit vector in the direction of A. Because the magnitude of λ is one, its components satisfy the identity
 VECTOR ADDITION USING RECTANGULAR COMPONENTS

Consider the two vectors:

RELATIVE POSITION VECTORS

The vector drawn from the origin O of a coordinate system to point B, denoted by OB, is
called the position vector of B.

The vector AB, drawn from point A to point B, is called the position vector of B relative to
A. We can also note that,

The magnitude of AB (the distance of d in the figure above) is:

The unit vector λ in the direction of AB can be found by dividing the vector AB by its magnitude:

Therefore, the components of λ are

HOW TO WRITE A VECTOR IN RECTANGULAR FORM

1. Write the relative position vector AB. The rectangular components of

AB can be obtained by inspection of a sketch or by substituting the
coordinates of points A and B into the equation.

2. Evaluate the unit vector λ = AB/IABI.

3. Write F in the rectangular form.

 VECTOR MULTIPLICATION

• DOT (SCALAR) PRODUCT

The figure shows two vectors A and B, with θ being the angle between their positive
directions. The dot product of A and B is defined as

Note that the dot product is positive if θ < 90°,

negative if θ > 90°, and zero if θ = 90°.

The following two properties of the dot product follow from its definition in the previous equation.

• The dot product is commutative: A · B = B · A

• The dot product is distributive: A · (B + C) = A · B + A · C

From the definition of the dot product, base vectors of a rectangular coordinate system satisfy the following
identities:

When A and B are expressed in rectangular form, their dot product becomes:

which, using the distributive property of the dot product and the base vectors of a rectangular coordinate system, this
reduces to

This is a powerful and relatively simple method for computing the dot product of two vectors that are given in
rectangular form.

FINDING THE ANGLE BETWEEN TWO VECTORS

The angle θ between the two vectors A and B in the figure beside can be found from
the definition of the dot product

Letting 𝜆𝐴 = 𝐀/𝐴 and 𝜆𝐵 = 𝐁/𝐵 be the unit vectors that have the same directions as
A and B:

DET. THE ORTHOGONAL COMPONENT OF A VECTOR IN A GIVEN DIRECTION

If we project B onto A as in the figure, the projected length B cosθ is called the orthogonal
component of B in the direction of A. This yields to

Because 𝜆𝐴 = 𝐀/𝐴 (the unit vector in the direction of A),

 CROSS (VECTOR) PRODUCT

The cross-product C of two vectors A and B is denoted by C=AxB

Characteristics of cross product:

• The magnitude of C is C=ABsin𝜽 where 𝜃(0 ≤ 𝜃 ≤180°) is the angle between the positive
directions of A and B. (Note that C is always a positive number.)

• C is perpendicular to both A and B.

• The sense of C is determined by the right-hand rule, which states that when the fingers of your right hand are
curled in the direction of the angle θ (directed from A toward B), your thumb points in the direction of C.*

*The cross product of two vectors is also called their vector product. 𝑨 𝒙 (𝑩 + 𝑪) = (𝑨 𝒙 𝑩) + (𝑨 𝒙 𝑪)

*However, the cross product is neither associative nor commutative. Therefore,

𝑨 𝒙 (𝑩 𝒙 𝑪) ≠ (𝑨 𝒙 𝑩) 𝒙 𝑪 and 𝑨𝒙𝑩 ≠ 𝑩𝒙𝑨

*Thus, we deduce that the base vectors of a rectangular coordinate system satisfy the following identities:

Examples of both right- and left-handed coordinate systems

When A and B are expressed in rectangular form, their cross product

becomes

Using the distributive property of the cross product, this equation becomes

Therefore,

SCALAR TRIPLE PRODUCT

Of the vector products that involve three or more vectors, the one that is most useful in statics is the scalar triple
product. The scalar triple product arises when the cross product of two vectors is dotted with a third vector - for
example, A x B · C.
Assuming that A, B, and C are expressed in rectangular form

Remember, the cross product must be done first; otherwise the expression is meaningless

Using the formula for the dot product, the expression is simplified to:

Therefore, it can be written as,