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CIE A Level Physics Your notes

1.4 Scalars & Vectors

Contents
Scalars & Vectors

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Scalars & Vectors

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What are Scalar & Vector Quantities?
A scalar is a quantity which only has a magnitude (size)
A vector is a quantity which has both a magnitude and a direction
For example, if a person goes on a hike in the woods to a location which is a couple of miles from their
starting point
As the crow flies, their displacement will only be a few miles but the distance they walk will be
much longer
Displacement analogy

Displacement is a vector while distance is a scalar quantity

Distance is a scalar quantity because it describes how an object has travelled overall, but not the
direction it has travelled in
Displacement is a vector quantity because it describes how far an object is from where it started and in
what direction
There are a number of common scalar and vector quantities

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Scalars and Vectors Table

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Scalars Vectors

Distance Displacement

Speed Velocity

Mass Acceleration

Time Force

Energy Momentum

Volume

Density

Pressure

Electric charge

Temperature

Exam Tip
Do you have trouble figuring out if a quantity is a vector or a scalar? Just think - can this quantity have a
minus sign? For example - can you have negative energy? No. Can you have negative displacement?
Yes!

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Combining Vectors
Vectors are represented by an arrow Your notes
The arrowhead indicates the direction of the vector
The length of the arrow represents the magnitude
Vectors can be combined by adding or subtracting them from each other
There are two methods that can be used to combine vectors: the triangle method and the
parallelogram method
To combine vectors using the triangle method:
Step 1: link the vectors head-to-tail
Step 2: the resultant vector is formed by connecting the tail of the first vector to the head of the
second vector
To combine vectors using the parallelogram method:
Step 1: link the vectors tail-to-tail
Step 2: complete the resulting parallelogram
Step 3: the resultant vector is the diagonal of the parallelogram
When two or more vectors are added together (or one is subtracted from the other), a single vector is
formed and is known as the resultant vector

Vector Addition

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Vector Subtraction

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Condition for Equilibrium

Coplanar forces can be represented by vector triangles
In equilibrium, these are closed vector triangles. The vectors, when joined together, form a closed path
Forces in equilibrium

If three forces acting on an object are in equilibrium; they form a closed triangle

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Resolving Vectors
Two vectors can be represented by a single resultant vector that has the same effect Your notes
A single resultant vector can be resolved and represented by two vectors, which in combination have
the same effect as the original one
When a single resultant vector is broken down into its parts, those parts are called components
For example, a force vector of magnitude F and an angle of θ to the horizontal is shown below
Resultant vector diagram

A resultant vector, F
It is possible to resolve this vector into its horizontal and vertical components using trigonometry
Horizontal and vertical vector components

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Horizontal and vertical components of F

For the horizontal component, Fx = Fcosθ

For the vertical component, Fy = Fsinθ

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