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We are familiar with the unit vectors in Cartesian coordinates, where x points in the x-direction and y points in the y-direction. Here, we will first state the general definition of a unit vector, and then extend this definition into 2D
Chapter 1. Units and Vectors: Tools for Physics. 1.1 The Important Stuff. 1.1.1 The SI System. Physics is based on measurement. Measurements are made by comparisons to well–defined standards which define the units for our measurements. The SI system (popularly known as the metric system) is the one used in physics.
these units can be used to describe other physical quantities such as velocity (m/s), and acceleration (m/s2). Sometimes the string of units gets to be so long that we contract them into a new unit called a derived unit. For example, A unit of force has base units of kg m s2! newton or N where the newton (N) is a derived unit. 3.1 Physical ...
Many of you will know a good deal already about Vector Algebra — how to add and subtract vectors, how to take scalar and vector products of vectors, and something of how to describe geometric and physical entities using vectors.
A unit vector (sometimes called versor) is a vector with magnitude equal to one. e.g. Three unit vectors defined by orthogonal components of the Cartesian coordinate system: z. k. i = (1,0,0), obviously jij = 1. j = (0,1,0), jjj = 1. k = (0,0,1), jkj = 1. O.
Three numbers are needed to represent the magnitude and direction of a vector quantity in a three dimensional space. These quantities are called vector quantities. Vector quantities also satisfy two distinct operations, vector addition and multiplication of a vector by a scalar.
A very important class of physical quantity is Vectors. A vector is characterized by specifying both a magnitude (in the proper units) AND a direction. Examples of vector quantities are force, velocity, momentum. Vector quantities are added together by a special rule of vector addition.
