Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Introduction to Vectors
Alan McCarthy
UNSW
Term 1, 2024
Alan McCarthy (UNSW) Chapter 1: Introduction to Vectors Term 1, 2024 1 / 64

A typical problem
Question
A car is travelling from the origin O in the direction N 30◦ E for 50 km, then
turns to E 45◦ S for 40 km. What is the distance and position of the car from the
starting point?
Note that to answer this question, you need to know both the magnitudes, i.e. 50
km, and the directions of motion, i.e. NE.

Goals of this chapter
In this chapter we will
introduce mathematical objects called vectors which encode information

about magnitudes and directions;
study how vectors combine to answer questions such as the one above;
introduce coordinates to reduce vector calculations to calculations involving
numbers;
introduce lines and planes: parametric and Cartesian forms.

Reminder on real numbers
Primary and high school arithmetic uses numbers that we call real. For example,
the numbers
2 √
0, 73, − , 2, π − e2 , . . . .
5
and so on are real numbers.
We will denote the real number system by R. We visualise R as an infinitely long

line (in both directions).
Within the set R we have
Natural numbers, N = {0, 1, 2, 3, . . .}.

Integers, Z = {. . . , −2, −1,
n 0, 1, 2, . . .}. o
p
Rational numbers, Q = q : p, q ∈ Z, q ̸= 0 .
Positive numbers, R+ = {x ∈ R : x > 0}.
Irrational numbers, i.e. those that aren’t in Q, R \ Q,
and many other subsets of numbers. Sometimes, we refer to numbers as scalars

(as opposed to vectors).
What is a (geometric) vector?
A (geometric) vector is often represented by an arrow or a directed line segment.
An arrow can be specified by an initial point A and a terminal point B, and we
−−→
denote the arrow by AB.
The length of the arrow represents the magnitude of the vector and the arrow
points in the direction of the vector.
It does not matter the position of the vector, only its magnitude and direction!
Example: The velocity of a car travelling at 90 km per hour SE: magnitude= 90

(scalar) and direction=SE
Typical notation for a vector include: v, v, →
−v , or v
e
We denote the magnitude of v by |v|.
We say that vectors u and v are equal, and write u = v, if u and v have the
same magnitude and direction.
The zero vector, denoted by 0, has length 0. It is the only vector with no specific
direction, and the only vector of length 0.

Vector addition
Like numbers, given two vectors u and v we can add them to produce a new
vector u + v as shown below
Adding the zero vector 0 does nothing as v + 0 = 0 + v = v for all vectors v.

The negative of v denoted by −v is the vector with the same magnitude but the
opposite direction so v + (−v) = (−v) + v = 0.

We define subtraction by u − v = u + (−v).
−→ −−→
If we write v = OA and u = OB, then we have
−→ −−→ −−→ −−→ −−→ −→
OA + AB = OB =⇒ AB = OB − OA.

Properties of vector addition
Question
Is vector addition similar to standard addition? i.e. does it follow the same type of
rules as the addition of real numbers?
You can manipulate vector sums much as you can numbers because of the
Commutative law: v + w = w + v (Why?)

Associative law: (u + v) + w = u + (v + w) (Why?)
Since these sums equal, we’ll write it simply as u + v + w.

Thus, it makes no difference in what order or in what grouping we add vectors.

Scalar multiplication
There is another operation we can perform on vectors, scalar multiplication. If
λ ∈ R is a scalar and v a vector, then:
If λ > 0, λv denotes the vector with the same direction, but magnitude is
scaled by λ, i.e. |λv| = λ|v|.
If λ = 0 then λv = 0.
If λ < 0 then we define λv = |λ|(−v).
E.g. (−1)v = ??
Definition
If λ ̸= 0 and u = λv, then we say that u and v are parallel. They are said to be
in the same direction if λ > 0.

Properties of scalar multiplication
Question
Is scalar multiplication similar to standard multiplication, say of real numbers?
Let v, w be vectors and λ, µ ∈ R. Then
Associative law: λ(µv) = (λµ)v
Distributive law: λ(v + w) = λv + λw (Vector)

(λ + µ)v = λv + µv (Scalar)

Vector arithmetic: a toy example
Let w = u + 2v. Are 2w − 4v and u parallel?

A: We simplify 2w − 4v = 2(u + 2v) − 4v
= (2u + 4v) − 4v (Why?)
= 2u + (4v − 4v) (Why?)
= 2u
Note: To perform this arithmetic, we only needed the basic properties of vector
addition and scalar multiplication above.
In general, we will meet lots of contexts where we have a vector addition and
scalar multiplication satisfying these axioms. These sets will be called vector
spaces. In these cases, we can perform arithmetic as above.

A second example
−−→ −−→ −−→ −−→

Let X, Y and Z be points, simplify XY − 2Y X + XZ − Y Z

One final example
Question
−→ −−→
Let OA = a and OB = b. Prove that P is a point on the line AB between A and
B if and only if
−−→
OP = a + λ(b − a) = (1 − λ)a + λb
for some real number 0 < λ < 1.
Solution. If P is a point on the line AB between A and B, then there exists

−→ −−→
λ ∈ (0, 1) such that AP = λAB.
−−→ −→ −→
Then, OP = OA + AP = a + λ(b − a) = (1 − λ)a + λb.
−−→
Conversely, if OP = (1 − λ)a + λb for some λ ∈ (0, 1), then
−→ −−→ −→ −−→
AP = OP − OA = (1 − λ)a + λb − a = λ(b − a) = λAB.
Since λ ∈ (0, 1), the point P lies on the line AB between A and B.
Exercise: Using the result above prove that the three medians of a triangle are
concurrent.
Back to the problem at the beginning
A car is travelling from the origin O in the direction N 30◦ E for 50 km, then
turns to E 45◦ S for 40 km. What is the distance and position of the car from the
starting point?
If we denote i and j the unit vectors from O in the E and N directions,
respectively, by definition of geometric vectors we can write

a = 50 sin 30◦ i + 50 cos 30◦ j, b = 40 cos 45◦ i − 40 sin 45◦ j,
c = a + b = (50 sin 30◦ + 40 cos 45◦ )i + (50 cos 30◦ − 40 sin 45◦ )j.
So, we decomposed the vectors a, b and c into two components, one in the E
direction and one in the N direction.
More conveniently, we will use the notation
50 sin 30◦ 40 cos 45◦ 50 sin 30◦ + 40 cos 45◦

a= ,b = ,c = .
50 cos 30◦ −40 sin 45◦ 50 cos 30◦ − 40 sin 45◦
=⇒ We can see geometric vectors algebraically using only numbers!

We also now know the coordinates that the car ends up at, and would be able to
use this to determine the distance of the car from its starting point.

Coordinates: vectors in R2
Goal: we want to represent geometric vectors as in the previous examples, using

only numbers=coordinates. For this, we need to specify:
an origin point O in the plane,

x-direction and y-direction which meet in O (e.g. the N and E directions in
previous example) and are at right angles to one another (the convention is
to be at angle π/2 counterclockwise), and
a pair of vectors i and j which have length 1.

Fact-Definition
Every geometric vector a in the plane can be written as a = a1 i + a2 j
for some unique pair of numbers a1 , a2 ∈ R.
a1
The coordinate vector of a (with respect to i, j) is , and a1 , a2 are called
a2
the coordinates (components) of the vector.
In particular, we have
1 0
i= , j= ,
0 1
and they are called standard basis vectors since any vector a ∈ R2 can be written
as combination of them.

a1
We thus have two ways to visualise a 2-tuple in R2 :
a2
−→
as a geometric vector a (or OA) (also called position vector with respect to
the origin) with coordinates a1 and a2
as the position of a point A in the x − y plane.
Like before, if we choose another point B on the plane, we define the

−−→
displacement vector AB to be the geometric vector with tail A and head B.

Important Remark
−→
You should note that a point A and the vector OA are different, but related
objects.
−→
While the point A represents a position, the position vector OA represents the
displacement from O to A. In terms of coordinates however, we do have the
following associations:
−→
coordinates of A = coordinates of OA.
If B is another point, then
−−→ −−→ −→
coordinates of AB = OB − OA
= coordinates of B − coordinates of A.
The length of a is the distance from origin O to A, and thus

q
|a| = dist(O, A) = d(O, A) = a21 + a22 Pythagoras’ Theorem
... we’ll come back to this later, in higher dimensions.

Co-ordinate arithmetic reflects vector arithmetic

a1 b
Let a = a1 i + a2 j, b = b1 i + b2 j so coordinates are , 1 .
a2 b2
The coordinates of
a ± b = (a1 i + a2 j) ± (b1 i + b2 j) = (a1 ± b1 )i + (a2 ± b2 )j

a1 ± b1
are .
a2 ± b2
Similarly, the coordinates of
λa = λ(a1 i + a2 j) = λa1 i + λa2 j

λa1
are .
λa2
Upshot: To sum, subtract or multiply vectors by scalars, we need only sum,

subtract or multiply coordinates.
We define
2 a1
R = : a1 , a2 ∈ R
a2
with addition and scalar multiplication as above,

a1 b a1 + b1 a λa1
+ 1 = , λ 1 = , λ ∈ R.
a2 b2 a2 + b2 a2 λa2
The elements of R2 are called vectors, or sometimes column vectors.

Moreover, R2 is closed under addition and scalar multiplication, i.e. the sum of
two vectors from R2 is another vector in R2 and similarly for scalar multiplication.

0 a1 −a1
The zero vector is 0 = , and the negative of a vector is .
0 a2 −a2

3-dimensional version
You can do all this with 3-dimensional geometric vectors too, in the same way as
for R2 : we choose an origin O, three directions x, y and z, and unit basis vectors
i, j and k.
You can write vectors in the form
a = a1 i + a2 j + a3 k, b = b1 i + b2 j + b3 k
   
a1 b1
which have coordinates a2  , b2 .
a3 b3
Again
   
a1 + b1 λa1
coordinates of a + b = a2 + b2  , coordinates of λa = λa2  .
a3 + b3 λa3

The space Rn
We can generalise coordinate vectors to any number of components!
Let n be a positive integer. An n-tuple or n-vector is an ordered list of n numbers
a1 , a2 , . . . , an , written as either a column vector or (less often in this course) a
row vector:  
a1
 a2 
a =  .  or a = (a1 , a2 , . . . , an ).
 
 .. 
an
  

 a1 

 a2 
 

n n
The set of all n-tuples is denoted R , that is, R =  .  : a1 , . . . , an ∈ R .
 

  ..  

 
an
 
   
a1 b1
 ..   .. 
Two vectors  .  and  .  are equal if ai = bi for all i = 1, . . . , n.
an bn
Example:  
  0
1
0 1
∈ R2 , 2 ∈ R3 ,   ∈ R4 .
−1
0
3
π
Hence coordinate vectors of 3-dim vectors lie in R3 whilst those of 2-dim vectors
lie in R2 .

Arithmetic on Rn
We can define vector addition and scalar multiplication on Rn coordinate-wise as
in R2 :
         
a1 b1 a 1 + b1 a1 λa1
 a2   b2   a 2 + b2   a2   λa2 
 ..  +  ..  :=  ..  , λ  .  :=  .  .
         
. .  .   ..   .. 
an bn an + bn an λan
     
0 a1 −a1
The zero element is 0 =  ...  and the negative is given by −  ...  =  ... 
     
0 an −an
(so we can define subtraction!).
Important: each Rn is a separate system. You can’t add a 3-tuple to a 7-tuple!
   
1 1
Q: Compute 3  1  − 2  1  =
−2 −2
Properties of arithmetic on Rn
As with R2 , the vector addition and scalar multiplication inherit nice properties
from addition and multiplication on R. That is, if a, b, c ∈ Rn and λ, µ ∈ R then
Commutativity: a + b = b + a,
Associativity: (a + b) + c = a + (b + c),
Distributive (vector) law: λ(a + b) = λa + λb,
Distributive (scalar) law: (λ + µ)a = λa + µa.
λa = 0 if and only if λ = 0 or a = 0,
etc
Moral: You can do algebra in Rn without running into any problems!
Proof: Easy from definitions e.g.

           
a1 b1 a1 + b1 b1 + a1 b1 a1
 a2   b2   a2 + b2   b2 + a2   b2   a2 
a+b =  . + .  :=  .  =  .  =  . + .  = b+a.
           
 ..   ..   ..   ..   ..   .. 
an bn a n + bn bn + an bn an

Back to geometric vectors
Recall the R2 model: position vectors correspond to points in R2 .
Question: How do we interpret n-vectors in Rn as position vectors of points?
Answer: As in R2 , instead of choosing the unit vectors i and j, we choose n
vectors ej , j = 1, . . . , n, in Rn defined by
 
0
 .. 
.
 
ej = 1 (1 is on the j-th position and 0 elsewhere), j = 1, . . . , n.

 .. 
.
0
As inR2 ,
e1 , . . . , en are called the standard basis vectors of Rn , since any vector
a1
 a2 
a =  .  ∈ Rn can be written a = a1 e1 + a2 e2 + · · · + an en .
 
 .. 
an
As in R2 , we can identify a point A with coordinates (a1 , . . . , an ) in Rn with the
−→
position vector OA, with initial point O and terminal point A.
−−→
If we choose another point B in Rn , the displacement vector AB is the geometric
−−→ −−→ −→
vector with tail A and head B, and AB = OB − OA.
Example: 1) The coordinate vector for the displacement from the point A with
coords (1, 2) to the point B with coords (2, −4) is
−−→
AB =?

 
0
2) If the position vector for the point A is 2 and the displacement from A to
1
 
1
B has coordinate vector 2, then the position of the vector B is?
3
(3) Are A(0, 1, 2), B(2, 0, 3), C(6, −2, 5) collinear?

Length and distance in Rn

a1
Pythagoras’ theorem =⇒ the length of a geometric vector with coords is
a2
p
a21 + a22 . This suggests the following generalisation of the length concept to Rn .
Definition
Let a, b ∈ Rn .
p
The length of a is defined to be |a| = a21 + · · · + a2n .
the distance between a and b is defined to be dist(a, b) = d(a, b) = |b − a|.
 
1
1
1 ?
Example. a) What is  
b) What is |λa|?

c) Given a (non-zero) vector a ∈ Rn , find a vector in Rn that is parallel to a but
of length 1.
d) Suppose that the point A has coordinates (1, 2, 3) and the point B has
coordinates (−1, 2, 5). What is the distance between A and B?

Lines in Rn
Using our 2 and 3-dim intuition, a line L in Rn should be determined by

−→
a point A on the line, with position vector a = OA and,
a direction, given by a non-zero vector v
Let us start with a line through the origin:

Now, let us look at a line passing through two points A and B:

Definition
A line in Rn is any set of vectors of the form
L = {x ∈ Rn | x = a + λv, λ ∈ R}
for some fixed vectors 0 ̸= v, a ∈ Rn . Note that a gives a point on the line and v
has the coordinates of a vector parallel to the line.
The expression
x = a + λv, λ ∈ R,
is called a parametric vector form for the line L through a parallel to v. We call λ
the parameter, and as it varies over R, while the variable x varies over all the
points of the line L.

Example: Find a parametric vector form  for
 the line through the point
2
4
(0, 2, 1, −1) parallel to the vector v = 
1.

0
Answer: Each point on the line has coordinate vector
x =?

Parametric forms for lines from Cartesian form
In high school, you express a line in the plane in Cartesian form as ax + by = c.
Question
Find a parametric vector form for the line y = 3x + 2 in R2 .
Answer 1: Consider
2 points on the line, e.g. A = (0, 2) and B = (1, 5), then
−−→ 1
take v = AB = . Then the parametric vector form of the line is given by
3

x 0 1
x= = +λ , λ ∈ R.
y 2 3
Answer 2: We introduce the parameter λ and set x = λ. Then,

x λ 0 1
x= = = +λ , λ ∈ R.
y 3λ + 2 2 3
There are many other solutions! (What are they?)

Parametric to Cartesian form
Question

1 2
Write the line x = +λ , λ ∈ R, in Cartesian form.
−1 1
The secret is to eliminate the extra variable λ!

x 1 2 1 + 2λ
Solution: Write = +λ = . Then
y −1 1 −1 + λ

1 0
What about x = +λ , λ ∈ R?
−1 1

Lines in R3
Parametrically, a line in R3 is defined as in R2 , as
x = a + λv,
where      
x a1 v1
x = y  , a = a2  , v = v2  ∈ R3 , λ ∈ R.
z a3 v3
(the line passes through the point with position vector a and is parallel to v)
Thus,
x = a1 + λv1 , y = a2 + λv2 , z = a3 + λv3 .
Eliminating λ (if v1 , v2 , v3 are non-zero), we obtain the Cartesian form
x − a1 y − a2 z − a3
= = = λ.
v1 v2 v3

Parametric to cartesian form for lines in R3
Question
Find a cartesian form for
   
1 4
x = 2 + λ 5 , λ∈R
3 6
Answer: As before, we eliminate λ and obtain:

   
1 4
What about x = 2 + λ 5, λ ∈ R?
3 0

Cartesian to parametric form for lines in R3
Question
x−2 y+1 z−3
Find a parametric form for = = .
3 6 −2
Answer: We can find a point on the line and a direction vector:
...or just introduce the parameter λ:

Example
x+3 y 3z − 2
Find a parametric vector form for the line in R3 given by = = .
4 2 5

What about x − 2y = 4 and z = 1?

Lines through two given points in Rn
We have seen that by definition, a line in Rn is defined parametrically by
x = a + λv, λ ∈ R.
(the line passes through the point with position vector a and is parallel to v)
If none of the components of v  is 0,then the Cartesian form for the line through
v1
 v2 
(a1 , a2 , . . . , an ) parallel to v =  .  is
 
 .. 
vn
x1 − a1 x2 − a2 xn − an
= = ··· = .
v1 v2 vn

Let A and B points in Rn with position vectors a and b, respectively. Then a
parametric equation of the line joining A and B is
x = a + λ(b − a) = (1 − λ)a + λb, λ ∈ R.
(Why?)
If a point P lies between A and B, the position vector of P is
a + λ(b − a) for some 0 < λ < 1.
(Why?)

Example:
Find the equation of the line in R4 through the points A(1, 1, 2, 0) and
B(2, 0, 1, 1) in parametric vector form and Cartesian form.

We say that two lines
x = a + λv, x = b + µw, a, b, v, w ∈ R3
are parallel if the direction vectors v and w are parallel, that is, v = αw for some
α ̸= 0.
Question
       
3 −2 4 3
Are the lines x = −1 + λ −3 and x = 0 + µ  92  parallel?
2 4 1 −6

Planes through origin
We have seen that given a vector v ∈ Rn , the set {λv | λ ∈ R} is a line through
the origin.
Let v, w ∈ Rn , n ≥ 2, be non-parallel vectors. Consider the set
P = {λ1 v + λ2 w : λ1 , λ2 ∈ R}. (1)
What is the geometric interpretation of this set?

We introduce new terminology:
the vector λ1 v + λ2 w is called a linear combination of the vectors v and w;

the set (1) is called the span of v and w (i.e., we take all vectors obtained
from v, w by combining them using vector operations), and we denote it by
span(v, w).

=⇒ span(v, w) is the plane through the origin that is parallel to v and w.

Definition
A plane through the origin is the span of any two non-zero non-parallel vectors.
What is span(v, w) when v, w ∈ Rn are parallel?
   
1 0
Question: Describe geometrically the set span 2 , 0.
3 1
   
1 3
2 6
What about span 
0 , 0?
   
1 3

Linear combination
We can consider combinations of more than two vectors:

Definition
Let v 1 , v 2 , . . . , v k ∈ Rn . A linear combination of these vectors is a vector of the
form
λ1 v 1 + λ2 v 2 + · · · + λk v k
with λ1 , . . . , λk ∈ R.

     
1 −1 2
Question: Is 2 a linear combination of  0  and 1?
3 −1 0

Span
Definition
Let v 1 , v 2 , . . . , v k ∈ Rn . The span of v 1 , v 2 , . . . , v k , written span(v 1 , . . . , v k ) is
the set of all linear combinations of v 1 , v 2 , . . . , v k . i.e.
span(v 1 , . . . , v k ) = {λ1 v 1 + λ2 v 2 + · · · + λk v k |λ1 , . . . , λk ∈ R}.

2
Example: Describe span .
1
   
1 0
Describe span 0 , 0.
0 1
     
1 0 0
Describe span 0 , 1 , 0.
0 0 1

Planes in Rn
Definition
Let a, v 1 and v 2 be fixed vectors in Rn , and suppose that v 1 and v 2 are not
parallel. Then the set
S = {a + λ1 v 1 + λ2 v 2 : λ1 , λ2 ∈ R},
is the plane through the point with position vector a, parallel to the vectors v 1
and v 2 .
The expression x = a + λ1 v 1 + λ2 v 2 , λ1 , λ2 ∈ R is called a parametric vector

form of the plane.
Qestion: What if v 1 , v 2 above are parallel?

Examples:
1 Find a parametric vector equation
  for the plane
  through the point A(1, 2, 1)
2 0
parallel to the vectors v = −1 and w = 1.
−1 2
2 Describe geometrically the set

       

 1 2 −3 


4
−1 0 2 
x∈R :x= 0
 + λ1   + λ2   , λ1 , λ2 ∈ R .
1 1

 

1 0 −1
 

Parametric form for plane determined by 3 points
Question
Find a parametric vector equation for the plane through the points A(1, 2, 1),
B(2, −1, −1) and C(0, 1, 2).

Cartesian form for planes in R3
A plane in R3 can be described by the equation
ax + by + cz = d
where not all a, b, c are 0. This is called the Cartesian form for the plane.
In Rn , n > 3, if not all a1 , a2 , . . . , an are zero, an equation of the form
a1 x1 + a2 x2 + · · · + an xn = d
is called a hyperplane.

Finding parametric form for planes from Cartesian form
Question
Find a parametric vector form for the plane in R3 with equation
x + y − 2z = 1.

Finding Cartesian form for planes from parametric form
Question
Find the Cartesian
   equation
 plane inR3
ofthe 
x 1 −1 1
y  = 2 + λ1  1  + λ2 0 , λ1 , λ2 ∈ R.
z 3 −1 1

Parametric vs Cartesian form
The Cartesian form expresses a line or plane as the solutions to some

equations.
A parametric form expresses a line or plane by a sophisticated way of listing
elements, where running through the list is obtained by letting the
parameter(s) range over a set.
In mathematics, these are the two usual general ways to describe any set.
Both have their uses.
For lines, a parametric form is closest to our geometric picture of the line.

In this chapter we learned:
what is a geometric vector;

we can do arithmetic with vectors;
gave an algebraic description of vectors via coordinates;
defined Rn together with addition and scalar multiplication;
defined lines: cartesian and parametric forms;
defined planes: cartesian and parametric forms.

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Chapter 1: Introduction to Vectors

Alan McCarthy (UNSW) Chapter 1: Introduction to Vectors Term 1, 2024 1 / 64

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In this chapter we will

introduce mathematical objects called vectors which encode information

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We will denote the real number system by R. We visualise R as an infinitely long

Within the set R we have

Natural numbers, N = {0, 1, 2, 3, . . .}.

and many other subsets of numbers. Sometimes, we refer to numbers as scalars

Example: The velocity of a car travelling at 90 km per hour SE: magnitude= 90

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Adding the zero vector 0 does nothing as v + 0 = 0 + v = v for all vectors v.

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Commutative law: v + w = w + v (Why?)

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Since these sums equal, we’ll write it simply as u + v + w.

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Let v, w be vectors and λ, µ ∈ R. Then

Associative law: λ(µv) = (λµ)v

Distributive law: λ(v + w) = λv + λw (Vector)

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Let w = u + 2v. Are 2w − 4v and u parallel?

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−−→ −−→ −−→ −−→

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Solution. If P is a point on the line AB between A and B, then there exists

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50 sin 30◦ 40 cos 45◦ 50 sin 30◦ + 40 cos 45◦

=⇒ We can see geometric vectors algebraically using only numbers!

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Goal: we want to represent geometric vectors as in the previous examples, using

an origin point O in the plane,

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Like before, if we choose another point B on the plane, we define the

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The length of a is the distance from origin O to A, and thus

... we’ll come back to this later, in higher dimensions.

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a ± b = (a1 i + a2 j) ± (b1 i + b2 j) = (a1 ± b1 )i + (a2 ± b2 )j

Similarly, the coordinates of

λa = λ(a1 i + a2 j) = λa1 i + λa2 j

Upshot: To sum, subtract or multiply vectors by scalars, we need only sum,

The elements of R2 are called vectors, or sometimes column vectors.

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Moral: You can do algebra in Rn without running into any problems!

Proof: Easy from definitions e.g.

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(3) Are A(0, 1, 2), B(2, 0, 3), C(6, −2, 5) collinear?

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Using our 2 and 3-dim intuition, a line L in Rn should be determined by

Let us start with a line through the origin:

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