Mechanics of Materials

Lecture – 01
7th March 2022
Scalars and Vectors

12.54 Km
Scalars vs. Vectors
Scalars and Vectors

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Vector operations
Multiplication by a scalar
Vector operations

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 Vector addition
Method 1 : Tip2Tail

1. Move one vector until its

tail lies on the tip of the
first vector
2. The sum of the 2 vectors
is the vector drawn from
the tail of the 1st vector
to the tip of the second
vector.
If more than 2 vectors
Vector addition
Method 2 : Parallelogram

▷ Same as tip-to-tail,
▷ Vector B is moved down so
that the vectors are
tail-to-tail / origin-to-origin
▷ The resultant vector is the
diagonal of the
parallelogram formed by
two copies of each vector.
Vector addition

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 Vector addition is Commutative

Regardless of the order of addition of vectors, the resultant or sum

vector (in magenta) is the same – vector addition is commutative.
Vector subtraction

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Vector addition of Forces

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Thought experiment
▷ Imagine a Ball suspended by a 1000 ropes.
▷ Each rope is exerting a force on the ball.
▷ The ball is NOT moving.
▷ What is the sum of all 1000 forces?
▷ If we join all 1000 force vectors tip-to-tail
what would be the length from the tip of the
last vector to the tail of the first vector?
Examples
ACTIVITY
Ship Navigation

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Activity
▷ Should sailors worry about wind and
current when traveling long distances?
Vectors in cartesian coordinates
Add vectors A = (-3, 3) and B = (1, 6). These
vectors both originate from (0, 0).
Components of a force

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Addition of several forces

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Procedure for Analysis

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EXAMPLE

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Solution
Rectangular components

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Resolving a vector
Rectangular components

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Special Triangles
Practice
Solutions
Further practice

https://xaktly.com/MathVectors.html
Vectors in Cartesian Plane
Visualizing Unit Vectors
Cartesian vector notation

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 Finding resultant force in
cartesian notation

X- commponent Y - component

F1 F1x F1y

F2 -F2x F2y

F3 F3x -F3y
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