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05-Complex N Polar N Vector

The dot product (also called the scalar product) of two vectors P and Q is defined as: P · Q = |P| |Q| cosθ Where |P| and |Q| are the magnitudes of the vectors and θ is the angle between them. The dot product is a scalar quantity that can be used to determine properties like whether two vectors are perpendicular (dot product is 0) or the angle between them (inverse cosine of the dot product over the product of the magnitudes). The dot product is also equivalent to the sum of the component-wise multiplication of the vectors when expressed in terms of unit vectors.

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63 views6 pages

05-Complex N Polar N Vector

The dot product (also called the scalar product) of two vectors P and Q is defined as: P · Q = |P| |Q| cosθ Where |P| and |Q| are the magnitudes of the vectors and θ is the angle between them. The dot product is a scalar quantity that can be used to determine properties like whether two vectors are perpendicular (dot product is 0) or the angle between them (inverse cosine of the dot product over the product of the magnitudes). The dot product is also equivalent to the sum of the component-wise multiplication of the vectors when expressed in terms of unit vectors.

Uploaded by

Manoj Manmathan
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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5. Dot Product (aka Scalar Product) in 2 Dimensions

If we have any 2 vectors P and Q, the dot product of P andQ is given by:

P Q = |P| |Q| cos


where |P| and |Q| are the magnitudes of P and Q respectively, and

is the angle between the 2 vectors.


The dot product of the vectors P and Q is also known as the scalar product since it always returns a scalar value. The term dot product is used here because of the notation used and because the term "scalar product" is too similar to the term "scalar multiplication" that we learned about earlier. Examples 1. Find the dot product of the force vectors F1 = 4 N and F2 = 6 N acting at 40 to each other as in the diagram.

Answer The dot product is:

F1 F2 = |F1| |F2| cos

= (4)(6) cos 40 = 18.38 N


2. Find the dot product of the vectors P and Q if |P| = 7 units and |Q| = 5 units and they are acting at right angles to each other. Answer The required dot product is:

P Q = |P| |Q| cos = 7 5 cos 90 =0


The second example illustrates an important point about how scalar products can be used to find out if vectors are acting at right angles, as follows.

Dot Product and Perpendicular Vectors


If 2 vectors act perpendicular to each other, the dot product (ie scalar product) of the 2 vectors has value zero. This is a useful result when we want to check if 2 vectors are actually acting at right angles.

Dot Products of Unit Vectors


For the unit vectors i (acting in the x-direction) and j (acting in the y-direction), we have the following dot (ie scalar) products (since they are perpendicular to each other):

ij=ji=0
Exercise What is the value of these 2 dot products: (a) i i (b) j j Answer (a)

i i = | i | | i | cos 0

=111 =1
(b)

j j = | j | | j | cos 0 =111 =1 Alternative Form of the Dot Product


Recall that vectors can be written using scalar products of unit vectors. If we have 2 vectors P and Q defined as:

P=ai+bj Q = c i + d j,
where

a, b, c, d are constants;
i is the unit vector in the x-direction; and j is the unit vector in the y-direction, then it can be shown that the dot product (scalar product) of P and Q is given by:

P Q = ac + bd
Answer For convenience, let vectors P and Q be as shown on the graph. (P is horizontal.)

Draw the altitude from vector P to the terminal point (c, d) of Q.

Simple trigonometry gives us:

cos = c / | Q |, so

c = | Q | cos
and

sin = d / | Q |, so

d = | Q | sin
Since P is horizontal,

a=|P| b=0

So

ac + bd

= a | Q | cos + 0
= | P | | Q | cos
Therefore

P Q = | P | | Q | cos = ac + bd
This result can be generalized for P and Q in any orientation. Example - Alternative Form of the Dot Product Find P Q if

P = 6 i + 5 j and Q=2i8j
Answer Now we see another use for the dot product finding the angle between vectors.

Angle Between Two Vectors


We can use the dot product to find the angle between 2 vectors. For the vectors P andQ, the dot product is given by

P Q = |P| |Q| cos


Rearranging this formula we obtain the cosine of the angle between P and Q:

To find the angle, we just find the inverse cosine of the expression on the right. So the angle between 2 vectors P and Q is given by

Example Find the angle between the vectors P = 3 i 5 j and Q = 4 i + 6 j. Answer

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