VECTORS NUMERICALS

Class 11 chapter 2

Art by titu
 Let’s Practice
A man walks 46.5 m east, then another 20 m
east.
Calculate his displacement relative to where he
started.
46.5 m, E
+ 20 m, E

66.5 m, E
A man walks 46.5 m east, then another 20 m
west. Calculate his displacement relative to
where he started.
46.5 m, E
-

20 m, W

26.5 m, E
A man travels 120 km FINIS
east then 160 km north. the hypotenuse is
H

Calculate his resultant called the RESULTANT

displacement. 160 km, N

VERTICAL
COMPONENT

c2  a2  b2  c  a2  b2

c  resultant  120  160 

2 2
STAR
T
120 km, E

c 200km HORIZONTAL COMPONENT

Suppose a person walked 65 m, 25 degrees East of North. What were
his horizontal and vertical components?
The goal: ALWAYS MAKE A RIGHT
H.C. = ?
TRIANGLE!

V.C = ? To solve for components, we often use the

25˚ 65 m trig functions sine and cosine.
adjacent side opposite side
cosine  sine 
hypotenuse hypotenuse
adj  hyp cos  opp  hyp sin 

adj  V .C.  65 cos 25  58.91m, N

opp  H .C.  65 sin 25  27.47m, E
Just putting N of E is not good enough (how
far north of east ?).
We need to find a numeric value for the
direction. To find the value of the angle
we use a Trig function called
TANGENT.
200 km

160 km, N
opposite side 160
Tan     1.333
q N of E adjacent side 120
1 o
120 km, E 
 Tan (1.333)  53.1

So the COMPLETE final answer is : 200 km, 53.1 degrees North of East

A bear, searching for food wanders 35 meters east then 20 meters north. Frustrated, he
wanders another 12 meters west then 6 meters south. Calculate the bear's displacement.

23 m, E
- =

12 m, W
- =
14 m, N
6 m, S
20 m, N
R  142  232  26.93m
14
35 m, E R 14 m, N Tan    .6087
23
q
  Tan 1 (0.6087)  31.3
23 m, E
A plane moves with a velocity of 63.5 m/s at 32 degrees South of East. Calculate the plane's
horizontal and vertical velocity components.

adjacent side opposite side

cosine  sine 
H.C. =? hypotenuse hypotenuse
32˚ adj  hyp cos  opp  hyp sin 
V.C. = ?

63.5 m/s
adj  H .C.  63.5 cos 32  53.85 m / s, E
opp  V .C.  63.5 sin 32  33.64 m / s, S
The magnitude of a position vector in 2D is 4 . Its slope is 1/ 3 .
Find

Magnitude of position vector =r=4

Slope = Tan( theta)= 30
R = 4COS 30 Î + 4 SIN 30 Ĵ
R= 2(ROOT)3 Î + Ĵ
end