Chapter

4 Vectors
Vectors are very important in physics and
engineering. Forces, displacement, velocity,
acceleration and momentum can be
described by vectors.
Chapter 4: Vectors
 Scalars and Vectors

Scalars are quantities that have magnitude but NO direction.

E.g. Speed, distance length, volume, density and time.

Vectors are quantities that have both magnitude and direction.

E.g. Velocity, acceleration, displacement, momentum and force.

Chapter 4: Vectors
 Representing Vectors

Vectors are represented by a straight line with an arrowhead on it.

Length of the line = The magnitude of the vector

Direction of arrowhead = The direction of the vector

A common notation for vector is F

Magnitude of a Vector
The magnitude of a vector F is represented by the symbol F .

Chapter 4: Vectors
Chapter 4: Vectors
 For similarly orientated vectors,

Resultant vector = Sum of magnitude of vectors

A B A B

A + B + A - B
A B A - B

Positive direction vectorsMagnitude of resultant vectorsNegative direction vector

Addition of Parallel Vectors Addition of Anti-Parallel Vectors

Chapter 4: Vectors
 Addition of Orthogonal Vectors

Orthogonal vectors are vectors that are at right angles

to each other.

Chapter 4: Vectors
 Adding Vectors that are not Parallel

1. Triangle method (Head-to-Tail Method)

1. Represent vector A by an arrow.

2. The arrow representing vector
is drawn such that the tail of B
vector is at the same point as the
head of vector . End
A
3. The vector representing the
resultant vector starts at the Start
tail of vector and
C ends at the
head of vector A .
B

Chapter 4: Vectors
 Adding Vectors that are not Parallel
2. Parallelogram method

In the parallelogram method,

the tails of vector A and B are
together at one vertex of a
parallelogram.

The resultant vector C starts at

the tails of vectors A and B. It
ends at the opposite vertex.

Chapter 4: Vectors