PDHonline Course G383 (2 PDH)

Vector Analysis

Instructor: Mark A. Strain, P.E.

2020

PDH Online | PDH Center

5272 Meadow Estates Drive
Fairfax, VA 22030-6658
Phone: 703-988-0088
www.PDHonline.com

An Approved Continuing Education Provider

 www.PDHcenter.com PDH Course G383 www.PDHonline.org

Table of Contents
Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 1
Vector Decomposition .................................................................................................................... 1
Cartesian Coordinate System...................................................................................................... 1
Components of a Vector ................................................................................................................. 3
Properties of a Vector ..................................................................................................................... 6
Addition ...................................................................................................................................... 6
Commutative Property ............................................................................................................ 6
Associative Property ............................................................................................................... 6
Scalar Multiplication................................................................................................................... 6
Commutative Property ............................................................................................................ 6
Associative Property ............................................................................................................... 7
Distributive Property............................................................................................................... 7
Identity Vector and Zero Vector ............................................................................................. 7
Dot Product ..................................................................................................................................... 7
Applications of the Dot Product ................................................................................................. 9
Angle formed Between Two Vectors ..................................................................................... 9
Projection of a vector onto a Line........................................................................................... 9
Cross Product .................................................................................................................................. 9
Computation of the Cross Product............................................................................................ 11
Cross Product by Multiplying Components.......................................................................... 11
Cross Product by Matrix Method.......................................................................................... 12
Properties of the cross product.............................................................................................. 12
Triple Product ........................................................................................................................... 13
Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 13
References..................................................................................................................................... 14

©2012 Mark A. Strain Page ii of 16

 www.PDHcenter.com PDH Course G383 www.PDHonline.org

Introduction
Mechanics is the science of motion and the study of the action of forces on bodies. Mechanics is
a physical science incorporating mathematical concepts directly applicable to many fields of
engineering such as mechanical, civil, structural and electrical engineering.
Vector analysis is a mathematical tool used in mechanics to explain and predict physical
phenomena. The word “vector” comes from the Latin word vectus (or vehere – meaning to
carry). A vector is a depiction or symbol showing movement or a force carried from point A to
point B.
A scalar is a quantity, like mass (14 kg), temperature (25°C), or electric field intensity (40 N/C)
that only has magnitude and no direction. On the other hand, a vector has both magnitude and
direction. Physical quantities that have magnitude and direction can be represented by the length
and direction of an arrow. The typical notation for a vector is as follows:

A or simply A

Note: vectors in this course will be denoted as a boldface letter: A.

Figure 1 – Illustration of a vector

Vectors play an important role in physics (specifically in kinematics) when discussing velocity
and acceleration. A velocity vector contains a scalar (speed) and a given direction. Acceleration,
also a vector, is the rate of change of velocity.

Vector Decomposition
Cartesian Coordinate System
Consider a 3-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system:

©2012 Mark A. Strain Page 1 of 16

 www.PDHcenter.com PDH Course G383 www.PDHonline.org

Figure 2 - Cartesian (or rectangular coordinate system)

A Cartesian (or rectangular) coordinate system has three mutually perpendicular axes: x, y and z.
A vector in this coordinate system will have components along each axes.
A unit vector is a vector along an axes (x, y or z) with a length of one. Let the unit vector along
the x-axis be i and the unit vector along the y-axis be j and the unit vector along the z-axis be k.
The Cartesian coordinate system with three unit vectors is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 - Rectangular coordinate system showing unit vectors

©2012 Mark A. Strain Page 2 of 16

 www.PDHcenter.com PDH Course G383 www.PDHonline.org

A vector can connect two points in space as in Figure 4.

Figure 4 - Vector connecting two points in space

Components of a Vector
In a Cartesian coordinate system the components of a vector are the projections of the vector
along the x, y and z axes. Consider the vector A. The vector A can be broken down into its
components along each axis: Ax, Ay and Az in the following manner:
A = Ax i + Ay j + Az k
Note that the vectors i, j and k are the unit vectors along each corresponding axis. The unit
vectors i, j and k each have a length of one, and the magnitudes along each direction are given by
Ax, Ay and Az.

Figure 5 - Vector decomposition showing components along each axis

Trigonometry is utilized to compute the vector components Ax, Ay and Az. Consider a vector in
2-dimensional space:

©2012 Mark A. Strain Page 3 of 16

 www.PDHcenter.com PDH Course G383 www.PDHonline.org

Figure 6 - Vector in 2-dimensional space

The components of this 2-dimensional vector are computed with respect to the angle θ as
follows:
Ax = Acosθ
and
Ay = Asinθ
Where A is the magnitude of A given by
A= A x2 + A y2

For example, let

A = 5 and θ = 36.8°
then
Ax = 5cos(36.8°)
= 5(0.8)
=4
and
Ay = 5sin(36.8°)
= 5(0.6)
=3
Therefore, the vector (in rectangular form) is
A = 4i + 3j

As a result of the Pythagorean Theorem from trigonometry the magnitude of a vector may be
calculated by

A = A x2 + A y2 + A z 2

©2012 Mark A. Strain Page 4 of 16

 www.PDHcenter.com PDH Course G383 www.PDHonline.org

The magnitude may also be denoted as

A = │A│ or A = ║A║
The magnitude of a vector is the length of the vector. It is a scalar (length only) with no
direction. In physics, for example, speed is a scalar and velocity is a vector, so speed is the
magnitude of the velocity vector.
Now consider, once again, the vector in 3-dimensional space:

Figure 7 - Vector decomposition showing angles to axes

The components of this 3-dimensional vector are computed with respect to the angles θx, θy and
θz as follows:
Ax = Acosθx
Ay = Acosθy
Az = Acosθz

A = A x2 + A y2 + A z 2
where is the magnitude of A and

cos2θx + cos2θy + cos2θz = 1.

A unit vector can be constructed along a vector by dividing the vector by its magnitude. The
result is a vector along the same direction as the original vector with magnitude 1. Consider the
unit vector a:

©2012 Mark A. Strain Page 5 of 16

 www.PDHcenter.com PDH Course G383 www.PDHonline.org

This is also called vector normalization. The magnitude of a is one.

Properties of a Vector
Addition
Vector addition is accomplished by adding the components (Ax, Ay and Az) of one vector to the
associated components (Bx, By and Bz) of another vector:
B B B

A + B = (Ax + Bx)i + (Ay + By)j + (Az + Bz)k

B B B

For example, consider the following vectors A and B:

A = i + 2j + 5k
B = 3i + j + 2k
then
A + B = (1 + 3)i + (2 + 1)j + (5 + 2)k
= 4i + 3j + 7k

Commutative Property
Vector addition follows the commutative property:
A+B=B+A

Associative Property
Vector addition also follows the associative property:
(A + B) + C = A + (B + C)

Scalar Multiplication
Vectors can be multiplied by real numbers (called scalars). To accomplish this the vector
components (Ax, Ay and Az) are each multiplied by the real number (n):
nA = nAxi + nAyj + nAzk
For example, let n = 5, and
A = i + 2j + 5k
then
nA = 5i + 10j + 25k

Commutative Property
Scalar multiplication of a vector follows the commutative property:
nA = An

©2012 Mark A. Strain Page 6 of 16

 www.PDHcenter.com PDH Course G383 www.PDHonline.org

(where n is a scalar)

Associative Property
Scalar multiplication of a vector follows the associative property:
(ab)A = a(bA)
= (ba)A
= b(aA)
(where a and b are scalars)

Distributive Property
Scalar multiplication of a vector follows the distributive property:
(a + b)A = aA + bA
a(A + B) = aA + aB
(where a and b are scalars)

Identity Vector and Zero Vector

1A = A
0+A=A

Dot Product
The dot product (or scalar product, or inner product) is a vector operation that takes two vectors
and generates a scalar quantity (a single number). The dot product is used to obtain the cosine of
the angle between two vectors.
The dot product is denoted by the following notation:
A•B
Figure 8 shows two vectors in space with an angle θ between the two vectors:

Figure 8 - Dot product of two vectors

The dot product is defined by

A • B = ABcosθ
where

©2012 Mark A. Strain Page 7 of 16

 www.PDHcenter.com PDH Course G383 www.PDHonline.org

A = A x2 + A y2 + A z 2

and

B = B x2 + B y2 + B z 2

and θ is the angle between the two vectors.

The dot product between two vectors A and B is also defined as
A • B = AxBx + AyBy + AzBz
B B B

or generally as

A • B = ΣAiBi B

(where i is defined from 1 to n, where n is

the number of dimensions)
The above definition is derived from the following expansion, since the base unit vectors are
orthogonal:
A • B = (Ax i + Ay j + Az k) • (Bx i + By j + Bz k) B B B

= AxBx i • i + AxBy i • j + AxBz i • k +

B B B

AyBx j • i + AyBy j • j + AyBz j • k +

B B B

AzBx k • i + AzBy k • j + AzBz k • k

B B B

Since the base unit vectors i, j and k are orthogonal (or perpendicular):
i•i=1 i•j=0
j•j=1 i•k=0
k•k=1 j•k=0
then the dot product reduces to
A • B = AxBx + AyBy + AzBz
B B B

For example, let

A = 3i + 5j + k
and
B = 2i + 3j – 4k
then the dot product of the two vectors is
A • B = 6 + 15 – 4
= 17

©2012 Mark A. Strain Page 8 of 16

 www.PDHcenter.com PDH Course G383 www.PDHonline.org

Applications of the Dot Product

Angle formed Between Two Vectors
To find the angle formed by two vectors use the definition of the dot product:
A • B = ABcosθ
and
A • B = AxBx + AyBy + AzBz
B B B

Setting these two equalities equal to each other provides the following result:
ABcosθ = AxBx + AyBy + AzBz
B B B

or
cosθ = AxBx + AyBy + AzBz
AB

Projection of a vector onto a Line

Consider a vector P forming an angle θ with a line. The projection of P on the line is also called
the orthogonal projection.

Figure 9 - Projection of a vector onto a line

The projection of P on line L is given by

R = Pcosθ

Cross Product
The cross product (or vector product, or outer product) of two vectors results in a vector
perpendicular to both vectors. The magnitude of the resulting vector is equal to the area of the
parallelogram generated by the two vectors. The area of a parallelogram equals the height times
the base, which is a magnitude of the cross product.

©2012 Mark A. Strain Page 9 of 16

 www.PDHcenter.com PDH Course G383 www.PDHonline.org

Figure 10 - Cross product of two vectors

The cross product is denoted by

A×B
The cross product is defined by
A × B = ABsinθ n

(where θ is the angle between the vectors and n is

the unit vector normal or perpendicular to A and B)
The name cross product is derived from the cross symbol “×” that is used to designate its
operation. The name vector product emphasizes the vector nature of the result, instead of a
scalar. The cross product has many applications in mathematics, physics and engineering such as
the moment of a force about a point (or torque).

Figure 11 - Moment (M) of a force (F) about a point O

The cross product obeys the right-hand rule as in Figure 12.

©2012 Mark A. Strain Page 10 of 16

 www.PDHcenter.com PDH Course G383 www.PDHonline.org

Figure 12 - Right-Hand rule

The right-hand rule is used to determine the direction of the resulting vector. The vectors A and
B form a plane. The vector formed from the resulting cross product A × B is in a direction
perpendicular to the plane of the two vectors. Using the right-hand rule will determine if the
direction of the vector is above the plane of the vectors or below the plane. Using your right
hand, place your hand above the plane of the vectors at their vertex. Curl your fingers in the
direction from A to B. If necessary, turn your hand over so that your thumb points down through
the plane in order to curl your fingers from A to B. The resulting vector points in the direction of
your thumb, either up or down.

Computation of the Cross Product

The cross product may be computed by multiplying the components of the vectors or by
assembling the components along with their unit vectors into a matrix and taking the determinant
of the matrix.

Cross Product by Multiplying Components

A × B = (Ax i + Ay j + Az k) × (Bx i + By j + Bz k)B B B

Consider the cross product of the unit vectors i, j and k

i×i=0 i×j=k
j×j=0 j×k=i
k×k=0 k×i=j
j × i = –k
i × k = –j
k × j = –i
Therefore,
A × B = (Ax i + Ay j + Az k) × (Bx i + By j + Bz k)
B B B

= AxBx i×i + AxBy i×j + AxBz i×k +

B B B

AyBx j×i + AyBy j×j + AyBz j×k +

B B B

AzBx k×i + AzBy k×j + AzBz k×k

B B B

©2012 Mark A. Strain Page 11 of 16

 www.PDHcenter.com PDH Course G383 www.PDHonline.org

= AxBx (0) + AxBy k + AxBz (–j) +

B B B

AyBx (–k) + AyBy (0) + AyBz i +

B B B

AzBx j + AzBy (–i) + AzBz (0)

B B B

= (AyBz – AzBy) i + (AzBx – AxBz) j + (AxBy – AyBx) k

B B B B B B

or, graphically, and perhaps easier to remember:

Using this method, take two consecutive unit vectors and their cross product is the next vector.
For example, i × j = k and j × k = i. Going to the right (in the direction of the arrow) the resulting
vector is positive. Alternatively, going to the left (against the arrow) the resulting vector is
positive. For example, j × i = –k and i × k = –j.

Cross Product by Matrix Method

or
A × B = (AyBz – AzBy) i + (AzBx – AxBz) j + (AxBy – AyBx) k
B B B B B B

For example, let

A = 2i – 3j + 5k
and
B = –i + 2j + 4k
Then the cross product of the two vectors is
= 12i – 5j + 4k – (3k + 10i + 8j)
= –22i – 13j + k

Properties of the cross product

Anti-Commutative
A × B = –B × A
Scalar Multiplication
nA × B = n(A × B)

©2012 Mark A. Strain Page 12 of 16

 www.PDHcenter.com PDH Course G383 www.PDHonline.org

Vector Addition and the Cross Product

(A + B) × C = A × C + B × C
and
A × (B + C) = A × B + A × C

Triple Product
The triple product is the dot product of a vector with the result of the cross product of two other
vectors.
A • (B × C)
The triple product may be computed by taking the determinant of the following matrix:

The following triple products are equal

A • (B × C) = B • (C × A) = C • (A × B)

Summary
Vector mechanics is the application of vectors in the science of mechanics. Mechanics is the
science of motion and the study of the action of forces on bodies. Vector analysis is very
important in many fields of engineering such as mechanical, civil, structural and electrical
engineering.
Scalar values, such as mass and temperature convey only a magnitude, but vectors such as
velocity employ both a magnitude and a direction. The dot product is a vector operation on two
vectors that produces a scalar value. The dot product is used to find the angle between two
vectors or to find the projection of a vector onto a line. The cross product is a vector operation on
two vectors that produces another vector. The cross product may be used to calculate the moment
of a force around a point at a given radius.

©2012 Mark A. Strain Page 13 of 16

 www.PDHcenter.com PDH Course G383 www.PDHonline.org

References
1. Beer, Ferdinand P. and Johnston, E Russell Jr. Vector Mechanics for Engineers: Statics,
Fifth Edition. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1988.

2. “Cross Product”. 24 January 2012 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_product>

3. Davis, Harry F. and Snider Arthur David. Introduction to Vector Analysis, Seventh
Edition. Dubuque, IA: Wm C. Brown Publishers: 1995.

4. “Dot Product”. 30 December 2011 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_product>

5. “Euclidean Vector”. 26 January 2012 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclidean_vector>

6. “Review A: Vector Analysis”. visited 27 December 2011

<http://web.mit.edu/8.02t/www/materials/modules/ReviewA.pdf>

7. “Vector Methods”. visited 27 December 2011

<http://emweb.unl.edu/math/mathweb/vectors/vectors.html>

©2012 Mark A. Strain Page 14 of 16