vector analysis, a branch of mathematics that deals with quantities that have both magnitude and direction. Some physical and geometric quantities, called scalars, can be fully defined by specifying their magnitude in suitable units of measure. Thus, mass can be expressed in grams, temperature in degrees on some scale, and time in seconds. Scalars can be represented graphically by points on some numerical scale such as a clock or thermometer. There also are quantities, called vectors, that require the specification of direction as well as magnitude. Velocity, force, and displacement are examples of vectors. A vector quantity can be represented graphically by a directed line segment, symbolized by an arrow pointing in the direction of the vector quantity, with the length of the segment representing the magnitude of the vector.

Vector algebra

A prototype of a vector is a directed line segment AB (see Figure 1) that can be thought to represent the displacement of a particle from its initial position A to a new position B. To distinguish vectors from scalars it is customary to denote vectors by boldface letters. Thus the vector AB in Figure 1 can be denoted by a and its length (or magnitude) by |a|. In many problems the location of the initial point of a vector is immaterial, so that two vectors are regarded as equal if they have the same length and the same direction.

The equality of two vectors a and b is denoted by the usual symbolic notation a = b, and useful definitions of the elementary algebraic operations on vectors are suggested by geometry. Thus, if AB = a in Figure 1 represents a displacement of a particle from A to B and subsequently the particle is moved to a position C, so that BC = b, it is clear that the displacement from A to C can be accomplished by a single displacement AC = c. Thus, it is logical to write a + b = c. This construction of the sum, c, of a and b yields the same result as the parallelogram law in which the resultant c is given by the diagonal AC of the parallelogram constructed on vectors AB and AD as sides. Since the location of the initial point B of the vector BC = b is immaterial, it follows that BC = AD. Figure 1 shows that AD + DC = AC, so that the commutative lawholds for vector addition. Also, it is easy to show that the associative lawis valid, and hence the parentheses in (2) can be omitted without any ambiguities.

Britannica Quiz

Numbers and Mathematics

If s is a scalar, sa or as is defined to be a vector whose length is |s||a| and whose direction is that of a when s is positive and opposite to that of a if s is negative. Thus, a and -a are vectors equal in magnitude but opposite in direction. The foregoing definitions and the well-known properties of scalar numbers (represented by s and t) show that

Inasmuch as the laws (1), (2), and (3) are identical with those encountered in ordinary algebra, it is quite proper to use familiar algebraic rules to solve systems of linear equations containing vectors. This fact makes it possible to deduce by purely algebraic means many theorems of synthetic Euclidean geometry that require complicated geometric constructions.

Products of vectors

The multiplication of vectors leads to two types of products, the dot product and the cross product.

The dot or scalar product of two vectors a and b, written a·b, is a real number |a||b| cos (a,b), where (a,b) denotes the angle between the directions of a and b. Geometrically,

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If a and b are at right angles then a·b = 0, and if neither a nor b is a zero vector then the vanishing of the dot product shows the vectors to be perpendicular. If a = b then cos (a,b) = 1, and a·a = |a|² gives the square of the length of a.

The associative, commutative, and distributive laws of elementary algebra are valid for the dot multiplication of vectors.

The cross or vector product of two vectors a and b, written a × b, is the vectorwhere n is a vector of unit length perpendicular to the plane of a and b and so directed that a right-handed screw rotated from a toward b will advance in the direction of n (see Figure 2). If a and b are parallel, a × b = 0. The magnitude of a × b can be represented by the area of the parallelogram having a and b as adjacent sides. Also, since rotation from b to a is opposite to that from a to b,

This shows that the cross product is not commutative, but the associative law (sa) × b = s(a × b) and the distributive laware valid for cross products.

Coordinate systems

Since empirical laws of physics do not depend on special or accidental choices of reference frames selected to represent physical relations and geometric configurations, vector analysis forms an ideal tool for the study of the physical universe. The introduction of a special reference frame or coordinate system establishes a correspondence between vectors and sets of numbers representing the components of vectors in that frame, and it induces definite rules of operation on these sets of numbers that follow from the rules for operations on the line segments.

If some particular set of three noncollinear vectors (termed base vectors) is selected, then any vector A can be expressed uniquely as the diagonal of the parallelepiped whose edges are the components of A in the directions of the base vectors. In common use is a set of three mutually orthogonal unit vectors (i.e., vectors of length 1) i, j, k directed along the axes of the familiar Cartesian reference frame (see Figure 3). In this system the expression takes the formwhere x, y, and z are the projections of A upon the coordinate axes. When two vectors A₁ and A₂ are represented asthen the use of laws (3) yields for their sum

Thus, in a Cartesian frame, the sum of A₁ and A₂ is the vector determined by (x₁ + y₁, x₂ + y₂, x₃ + y₃). Also, the dot product can be writtensince

The use of law (6) yields forso that the cross product is the vector determined by the triple of numbers appearing as the coefficients of i, j, and k in (9).

If vectors are represented by 1 × 3 (or 3 × 1) matrices consisting of the components (x₁,x₂, x₃) of the vectors, it is possible to rephrase formulas (7) through (9) in the language of matrices. Such rephrasing suggests a generalization of the concept of a vector to spaces of dimensionality higher than three. For example, the state of a gas generally depends on the pressure p, volume v, temperature T, and time t. A quadruple of numbers (p,v,T,t) cannot be represented by a point in a three-dimensional reference frame. But since geometric visualization plays no role in algebraic calculations, the figurative language of geometry can still be used by introducing a four-dimensional reference frame determined by the set of base vectors a₁,a₂,a₃,a₄ with components determined by the rows of the matrix

A vector x is then represented in the formso that in a four-dimensional space, every vector is determined by the quadruple of the components (x₁,x₂,x₃,x₄).

Calculus of vectors

A particle moving in three-dimensional space can be located at each instant of time t by a position vector r drawn from some fixed reference point O. Since the position of the terminal point of r depends on time, r is a vector function of t. Its components in the directions of Cartesian axes, introduced at O, are the coefficients of i, j, and k in the representation

If these components are differentiable functions, the derivative of r with respect to t is defined by the formulawhich represents the velocity v of the particle. The Cartesian components of v appear as coefficients of i, j, and k in (10). If these components are also differentiable, the acceleration a = dv/dt is obtained by differentiating (10):

The rules for differentiating products of scalar functions remain valid for derivatives of the dot and cross products of vector functions, and suitable definitions of integrals of vector functions allow the construction of the calculus of vectors, which has become a basic analytic tool in physical sciences and technology.