6/29/2017 CalculusIIVectorsTheBasics

Vectors TheBasics
Letsstartthissectionoffwithaquickdiscussiononwhatvectorsareusedfor.Vectorsareusedtorepresent
quantitiesthathavebothamagnitudeandadirection.Goodexamplesofquantitiesthatcanberepresented
byvectorsareforceandvelocity.Bothofthesehaveadirectionandamagnitude.

Letsconsiderforceforasecond.Aforceofsay5Newtonsthatisappliedinaparticulardirectioncanbe
appliedatanypointinspace.Inotherwords,thepointwhereweapplytheforcedoesnotchangetheforce
itself.Forcesareindependentofthepointofapplication.Todefineaforceallweneedtoknowisthe
magnitudeoftheforceandthedirectionthattheforceisappliedin.

Thesameideaholdsmoregenerallywithvectors.Vectorsonlyimpartmagnitudeanddirection.Theydont
impartanyinformationaboutwherethequantityisapplied.Thisisanimportantideatoalwaysrememberin
thestudyofvectors.

Inagraphicalsensevectorsarerepresentedbydirectedlinesegments.Thelengthofthelinesegmentisthe
magnitudeofthevectorandthedirectionofthelinesegmentisthedirectionofthevector.However,
becausevectorsdontimpartanyinformationaboutwherethequantityisappliedanydirectedlinesegment
withthesamelengthanddirectionwillrepresentthesamevector.

Considerthesketchbelow.

Eachofthedirectedlinesegmentsinthesketchrepresentsthesamevector.Ineachcasethevectorstartsata
specificpointthenmoves2unitstotheleftand5unitsup.Thenotationthatwelluseforthisvectoris,

andeachofthedirectedlinesegmentsinthesketcharecalledrepresentationsofthevector.

Becarefultodistinguishvectornotation, ,fromthenotationweusetorepresentcoordinatesofpoints,
.Thevectordenotesamagnitudeandadirectionofaquantitywhilethepointdenotesalocationin
space.Sodontmixthenotationsup!

Arepresentationofthevector intwodimensionalspaceisanydirectedlinesegment, ,from
thepoint tothepoint .Likewisearepresentationofthevector in
threedimensionalspaceisanydirectedlinesegment, ,fromthepoint tothepoint
.

Notethatthereisverylittledifferencebetweenthetwodimensionalandthreedimensionalformulasabove.
Togetfromthethreedimensionalformulatothetwodimensionalformulaallwedidistakeoutthethird
component/coordinate.Becauseofthismostoftheformulasherearegivenonlyintheirthreedimensional
version.Ifweneedthemintheirtwodimensionalformwecaneasilymodifythethreedimensionalform.
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6/29/2017 CalculusIIVectorsTheBasics

Thereisonerepresentationofavectorthatisspecialinsomeway.Therepresentationofthevector
thatstartsatthepoint andendsatthepoint iscalledtheposition
vectorofthepoint .So,whenwetalkaboutpositionvectorswearespecifyingtheinitialandfinal
pointofthevector.

Positionvectorsareusefulifweeverneedtorepresentapointasavector.Aswellseetherearetimesin
whichwedefinitelyaregoingtowanttorepresentpointsasvectors.Infact,weregoingtorunintotopics
thatcanonlybedoneifwerepresentpointsasvectors.

Nextweneedtodiscussbrieflyhowtogenerateavectorgiventheinitialandfinalpointsofthe
representation.Giventhetwopoints and thevectorwiththerepresentation
is,


Notethatwehavetobeverycarefulwithdirectionhere.ThevectoraboveisthevectorthatstartsatAand
endsatB.ThevectorthatstartsatBandendsatA,i.e.withrepresentation is,


Thesetwovectorsaredifferentandsowedoneedtoalwayspayattentiontowhatpointisthestartingpoint
andwhatpointistheendingpoint.Whendeterminingthevectorbetweentwopointswealwayssubtractthe
initialpointfromtheterminalpoint.

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