Professional Documents
Culture Documents
PHYS331 Lesson 1
PHYS331 Lesson 1
I. Position Vector
A. Definition:
The position vector for an object is the vector drawn from the origin
of a coordinate system to the location of the object.
In the drawing below, the position vector r (shown in green) is
drawn from the origin to the location of our baseball at point P.
P
r
r P
r
R
Mathematically, these are two different ways of specifying the same
physical point in space (the location of the library). Thus, these two
mathematical descriptions must be related to each other in some way.
Such relationships are known in physics as transformation equations
and are very important. In this case, the connection is simply the
relationship for adding vectors. The library’s position vector as given
by Susan is the sum of John’s position vector according to Susan
(shown in red) and the library’s position vector according to John.
r R r
You might be inclined to remark that all of this is trivial and even that
it is a waist of time. All of this material should be review from your
introductory physics course. I encourage you to reject such quick
judgments and to reflect deeply upon each concept that we study in
this course. The reason that I have chosen to include this material is to
remind you of some very important physics and to highlight the
course goals. First, you should remember from your introductory
physics course that many other physics quantities are derived from the
position vector including displacement, velocity, acceleration, linear
momentum, angular momentum, etc. Thus, the question of reference
frames and transformation equations is extremely important in
physics. Secondly, a major reason for the course is not to solve
problems involving balls rolling down inclined planes, but to develop
an understanding of the way in which physical systems can be
represented in mathematics. By learning to apply mathematics to
mechanical systems where you have some physical intuition, you
build the skills needed for more advanced physics courses (Relativity,
Quantum Electrodynamics, etc) where intuition based upon everyday
experience will be of little help.
II. Velocity Vector
A. Definition:
No, the velocity vector is not unique. Observers using two different
coordinate systems might disagree on the velocity of an object.
A. Definition:
P (x,y,z)
r
z
x
y
A. Position Vector
We have already discussed that a position vector can be written
mathematically in more than one way. In this case, we choose
the
writethe position vector as the sum of three other vectors ( X , Y ,
and Z ) as shown below.
r
Z
X
Y
r XYZ
You may remember that a unit vector is a vector of magnitude
(length) 1 with no units that is used solely to provide direction.To
specify the direction of these three vectors ( X , Y , and Z ), we define
three unit vectors (one for each of our coordinates). These unit vector
are
î which points in the +x direction
ĵ which points in the +y direction
k̂ which points in the +z direction.
Again, you should have already seen this result in your introductory
physics course. Did you understand the process by which it came
about or did you just memorize it? Often in introductory physics
classes, we can take advantage of our students’ every day experiences
to teach certain physics principles. Your instructor may have
discussed using a combination of North/South and East/West to drive
between your house and the grocery store. Because the Earth is
relatively flat based upon your everyday experience, most students
have an intuitive feel for Cartesian Coordinates. However, we will be
working with other coordinate systems so you need to understand
actual mathematical process.
B. Velocity Vector
d d d
v ( x î ) ( y ˆj ) ( z k̂ )
dt dt dt
d d d d d d
v ( x ) î x ( î ) ( y ) ĵ y ( ˆj ) ( z ) k̂ z ( k̂)
dt dt dt dt dt dt
The three unit vectors ( î , ĵ , and k̂ ) are constant (remember that for
a vector this means constant in direction as well as constant in
magnitude) so their derivatives are zero!!!
d d d
v ( x ) î ( y ) ĵ ( z ) k̂
dt dt dt
v x
î y
ĵ z
k̂
There are several important things that you should take away from
this exercise. First, one of the advantages of working with Cartesian
coordinates is that the unit vectors don’t enter into the Calculus. In
other coordinate systems, you will have to take derivatives of unit
vectors!! Secondly, the result shows that the velocity component in
each direction depends only on the time rate of change of that
coordinate!! Therefore, motion along one axis is independent of
motion along either of the other axis. This is why a ball thrown
horizontally will hit the Earth at the same time as a ball dropped from
the same height provided we neglect the minute curvature of the
Earth. It is also why we were able to break rectilinear motion
problems into parts in your introductory physics course.
C. Acceleration Vector
We now use the definition of acceleration to develop the relationship
for Cartesian coordinates.
dv d
a (x
î y
ĵ z k̂ )
dt dt
d d d
a î )
(x ˆj )
(y (z
k̂ )
dt dt dt
d d d d ˆ d d
a ) î x
(x ) ˆj y
( î ) ( y (j) ( z ) k̂ z ( k̂)
dt dt dt dt dt dt
Again, we use the fact that the derivative of our three unit vectors ( î ,
ĵ , and k̂ ) are zero!!!
d d d
a ) î
(x ) ĵ
(y ( z ) k̂
dt dt dt
a x î y ĵ z k̂
P (,,z)
r
z
y
A. Unit Vectors
Following the procedure for our past work, we are going to define a
unit vector for each of the three coordinates. The first unit vector is
found by only allowing to vary while keeping and z constant. This
amounts to moving along the radius of the cylinder in the direction of
an increasing radius. The second unit vector is found by only allowing
to vary while keeping and z constant. This amounts to walking
counter clockwise around a circle. The third unit vector is found by
only allowing z to vary while keeping and constant. This amounts
to walking in the +z direction.
P (,,z)
r
k̂ ̂
y
ρ̂
x
Since the unit vectors ρ̂ and ̂ lie in the x-y plane and do not
depend on z, it is often useful to have the following additional
diagram when working out the Calculus:
y
̂
ρ̂
x
Using our knowledge of the dot product and components, we see that
ρ̂ Cos( ) î Sin( ) ĵ
ˆ Sin( ) î Cos( ) ˆj
B. Position Vector
In cylindrical coordinates, we can write the position vector in as the
sum of only two vectors:
r ρ Z
P (,,z)
r
Z z k̂
y
ρ ρ ρ̂
x
Thus, we have the position vector in cylindrical coordinates as
r ρ ρ̂ z k̂
d d
v ( ρρ̂ ) ( z k̂ )
dt dt
d d d d
v ( ρ ) ρ̂ ρ ( ρ̂ ) ( z ) k̂ z ( k̂)
dt dt dt dt
The unit vectors ( ρ̂ and ̂ ) are not constant since their direction
depends on the location of point P. Therefore, we will have to take
their derivatives!! We do this by replacing each unit vector with its
representation in Cartesian coordinates and then do the Calculus.
Starting with ρ̂ , we have
d d
( ρ̂ ) [ Cos( ) î Sin ( ) ĵ ]
dt dt
d d d
( ρ̂ ) [ Cos( )] î [ Sin ( ) ] ĵ
dt dt dt
d d d
( ρ̂ ) Sin( ) [ ] î Cos ( ) [ ] ĵ
dt dt dt
d d
( ρ̂ ) [Sin( ) î Cos ( ) ĵ ] [ ]
dt dt
d
( ρ̂ ) ˆ ωˆ
dt
The time rate of change of the angular position was called the
angular velocity, , for rotation problems in your introductory physics
course!!
We now calculate the time derivative of ̂ by the same procedure.
d d
( ˆ ) [ - Sin( ) î Cos ( ) ĵ ]
dt dt
d d d
( ˆ ) [ Sin( )] î [ Cos ( ) ] ĵ
dt dt dt
d d d
( ˆ ) Cos( ) [ ] î Sin ( ) [ ] ĵ
dt dt dt
d d
( ˆ ) [Cos( ) î Sin ( ) ĵ ] [ ]
dt dt
d
( ˆ ) ρ̂ ω ρ̂
dt
A graph of the unit vectors and their derivatives may help you
visualize the results. It also reminds you that the derivative of a vector
produces a vector tangent to the original vector!! The length of the
derivative vectors depend on the angular velocity. If there is no
rotation then the motion is in a plane and the derivatives of the unit
vectors are zero!! If the angular velocity is high then the magnitudes
of the derivatives of the unit vectors will be large and these terms will
dominate the velocity results.
y dρ̂
dt
̂
dˆ
dt ρ̂
x
Let us now consider our results. The first term is the radial velocity
component. The last term is the velocity component in the z-direction.
If we consider the special case of a particle traveling in a circle in the
x-y plane then both the first and third terms in the velocity
relationship are zero. Thus, an object moving in a circular path as in
your introductory physics course would have a velocity with a
component only in the ̂ direction with a magnitude of ρ ω . This is
just the tangential velocity from your introductory physics course!!
In other words, we have
v v radial ρ̂ v tangential ˆ v z k̂
D. Acceleration Vector
d d d
a ρ̂)
(ρ (ρ ˆ ) (z
k̂ )
dt dt dt
d d d d d d d
a )ρ̂ ρ
(ρ ( ρ̂) (ρ) ˆ ρ ( )ˆ ρ (ˆ ) (z )k̂ z ( k̂ )
dt dt dt dt dt dt dt
Using our relationships for the time derivatives of the unit vectors, we
have
ˆ ρ
a ρ ρ̂ ρ ˆ ρ
ˆ ρ (- ρ̂) z k̂
Rearranging and combining terms, we have that
a ( ρ - ρ 2 )ρ̂ (2 ρ
ρ
)ˆ z k̂
a - ρ 2 ρ̂ ρ
ˆ - ρω 2 ρ̂ ρα ˆ
The radial term is the centripetal acceleration and the angular term is
the tangential acceleration of the object from introductory physics
class where α is the angular acceleration.
î A A x
In a similar manner, we can show that
ĵ A A y
k̂ A A z
ρ̂ A A ρ (1) A ( 0) A z (0)
ρ̂ A A ρ
The key thing is not to remember these results, but to understand the
process so that you are able to work with any orthogonal coordinate
system that you might encounter!!
A ρ ρ̂ ( A x î A y ĵ A z k̂)
A ˆ A
A ˆ ( A x î A y ˆj A z k̂)
I could simplify these expressions, but I have left them in their most
general form so that I can rewrite them in terms of matrices.
ρ̂ î ρ̂ ĵ ρ̂ k̂
Aρ A x
A ˆ î ˆ ĵ ˆ k̂ A
y
Az k̂ î k̂ ĵ k̂ k̂ A z
Our result indicates that we can translate between any two orthogonal
coordinate systems by multiplying our vector by a transformation
matrix whose elements are the scalar product of the unit vectors in
these two coordinate systems!!! This process is well suited for
computer analysis since computers are extremely efficient at handling
matrices (called arrays in CS jargon). In fact, this is the way that
rotations and other motion calculations are often handled in video
games!!!
Summary:
1) Find the scalar products between each of the unit vectors
2) Write the transformation matrix whose elements were found in
step 1.
3) Write your original vector as a column matrix whose elements
are the components of the vector in the original coordinate
system
4) Multiply the transformation matrix by the original vector’s
column matrix to produce a new column matrix whose elements
are the components of the vector in the new coordinate system.
ˆ î Sin( ) ˆ ĵ Cos( ) ˆ k̂ 0
k̂ î 0 k̂ ĵ 0 k̂ k̂ 1
Cos( ) Sin( ) 0
T Sin( ) Cos( ) 0
0 0 1