REFERENCE FRAME: Usually, Kinematics deals with the

study of particles (single mass points) in motion with

respect to a defined reference frame. Now, the question
arises in the mind, “What is a reference frame?”
Reference frame is a frame imagined by the viewer in
which he/she decides to study the nature of the
experimented particle.
Say, you and your 2 friends John and Williams went out
on a fair to ride a roller coaster. Williams is afraid of
riding it. So he decides to stand and watch you two. You
ride the roller coaster with John and it starts off. Now,
with respect to you John is fixed and is at rest. But,
Williams watches you two move. That is actually the
concept of reference frame. In your reference frame
John is still and in Williams’ reference frame John is
moving.
There is no definite rule of choosing the reference frame.
We should choose our reference frame according to our
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required situation or according to the data we want to
find out in the given problem. There are two types of
reference frame which we will discuss later on.

CO-ORDINATE AXES:
Y
Z
X’ X
Z’
FIG: 1 Y’

If we study the nature of any particle, we imagine these

three axes of reference. Here, in figure-1 we have named
the horizontal axis as XX’, Vertical axis as YY’ and the
perpendicular axis as ZZ’. They are mutually
perpendicular to each other. There is no definite rule to
select the axes. I mean to say, ZZ’ can also be assigned as
the horizontal axis. But, GENERALLY FOR EASE we take
the axes as mentioned.

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Say, we want to study the motion of a bus moving at a
particular direction. We can imagine a reference frame
with the two axes shown in Fig: 2. With respect to these
axes, we can calculate the desired values of
displacement, velocity, acceleration and other different
parameters of the motion of the bus.

Physical Quantities:
A physical quantity (or "physical magnitude") is
a physical property of a phenomenon, body, or
substance, which can be quantified by
measurement (courtesy: Wikipedia).
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Physical quantities are of two types generally (3
elaborately).

1. Scalar
2. Vector
3. Tensor ( Tensor is basically a generalization
of Scalars and Vectors )
Scalar Quantity:
A scalar is a physical quantity that it represented
by a dimensional number at a particular point in a
fixed coordinate axis. In simple words, Scalars
are those quantities which only possess magnitude
and has no definite direction. Example: mass (it
has no direction but only magnitude)
Vector Quantity:
A vector is a quantity that has both magnitude
and direction. It is often printed with an arrow
over it (as in ).

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Where, “a” is the magnitude of the vector and
the arrow sign defines that the quantity has a
direction.

Vector Components:
(Check Trigonometry section before)

Fig: 3
On the fig: 3 we can see a vector is making an
angle of θ with the X axis. Now, we can resolve
this vector into two components as we can
imagine this vector as a resultant of the two
vectors ax & ay. Now, by trigonometry we can say,
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ax = & ay = accordingly where ax is
the component of made by the X axis and ay is
the component of the same vector made by the Y
axis.
So, if we know the value of and we can easily
resolve them into vector components according to
the equations of ax and ay given above. Now if the
two components ax and ay are given we can also
find the magnitude of and by the following
process.
By the law of Pythagoras we can say that

And by simple trigonometry

Now, there is a more formal way to write the

vectors in terms of its components. They are
called unit vectors. Unit vectors are considered
as vectors of 1 unit (say for a particular force it
would be taken as 1N (S.I) at a particular

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direction). In our coordinate system we indicate
like this way
1. Unit vector along X axis:
2. Unit vector along Y axis:
3. Unit vector along Z axis:
So, if we write the vector using the unit
vectors we can write it in the following way,

Resultant Vector:

Fig: 4
Let us consider, a body is acted upon by two
forces which are of different magnitude and
direction. Now, as a result the body will move at a
particular direction. Now, if we replace those two

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forces by a single force which gives the exact
same motion to the body then that single force is
called the resultant force of the two forces. In
the fig: 4 I have tried to show the concept of the
resultant force.

VECTOR ADDITION (SHOWN IN 2D):

Let, be added results of the two vector
i.e.:
Now, basically is nothing but the Resultant
vector of the two vectors & . Now, if we take
them as the components of their unit vectors
along X and Y axes then,

So,
or,
or,
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 or,
Comparing the two sides we get,

So, basically the resultant vector is the sum of

the individual components of the vectors at the
same direction. Now, there are three formal ways
to find the resultant of two or more vectors,
1. Triangle law
2. Parallelogram Law
3. Polygon Law

Triangle Law:
Statement: If any two vectors acting at a point
are represented in magnitude and direction by
two sides of a triangle in the same order then the
third side of the triangle taken in reverse order
represents the magnitude and the direction of
the resultant vector.

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This law is generally only applied when one vector
is acting upon another one, that means when two
vectors are converged at a particular point or one
vector has its head onto another’s tail (It would
be more clear if we see the diagram)

See the fig: 5. The vector has its head ( the

arrow sign) towards the tail of at the point M.
Now, here is taken as the resultant of the two
vectors.

Fig: 5

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 As, is the resultant of the two vectors and
,

Fig: 6
From Fig: 6 we can see that a perpendicular
vector AC is drawn on the extension of OM.
Considering the triangle OAC,

Now,

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 So, in this way we can find out the magnitude of
the resultant vector and the angle made by the
resultant with any one vector.

PARALLELOGRAM LAW:
Statement: If two vectors acting at a point are
denoted in magnitude and direction by two
adjacent sides of a parallelogram drawn from a
point; their resultant in magnitude and direction
is given by the diagonal passing through the same
point.
This law is generally only applied when two
vectors diverge from a particular point or rather
we can say both have their tails at the same
point.

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 Fig: 7
Here, in the Fig: 7 we can see that the vectors
are acting from the point O. The red line
indicates their resultant. Now, the same result as
of the Triangle law comes when we find the
magnitude and direction of the resultant vector.
It can be found in the same way just taking
either of the two triangles where one of the
sides are made by the dotted lines.
So here if we denote the resultant as ,

And if the angle between the resultant and is φ

then in same way,

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POLYGON LAW:
Statement: If some vectors are represented by
the side of a polygon taken in one order then the
resultant vector is denoted by the closing side of
the polygon taken in the reverse order.
The polygon law is an extension of earlier two
laws of vector addition. It is successive
application of triangle law to more than two
vectors. A pair of vectors is added in
accordance with triangle law. The intermediate
resultant vector is then added to third
vector again, successively till all vectors to be
added have been exhausted.

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Fig: 8 (pic courtesy: http://cnx.org/)
We can understand everything very clearly from
the Fig: 8.
Now, there is no definite way to form the
polygon. We can construct any polygon using those
vectors but the resultant will come same (shown
in Fig: 9).

Fig: 9 (courtesy: http://cnx.org/)

Vector Subtraction
Vector subtraction is a really easy thing. It is
nothing but the addition of a vector to another
vector having ----
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 1. Either opposite magnitude
2. Or opposite direction
Let’s take an example:
If I say,
That means
That defines either is negative in magnitude or
it has the opposite direction of .

VECTOR MULTIPLICATION:
Vector multiplication is elaborately described in
www.studbud.comule.com/mathematics/vectors

Lami’s Theorem:
Statement: If three vectors are acting on a rigid
body and passing through the same point and the
body is in equilibrium, then each vector is
proportional to the sine of the angle made by the
other two vectors.

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 Fig: 10
According to Lami’s theorem:

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