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Galileo Galilee. 3.1.1 Introduction to Vectors. Certain physical quantities such as mass or the absolute temperature at some point in space only have magnitude. A single number can represent each of these quantities, with appropriate units, which are called scalar quantities.
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 ...
Example. Write the polar unit vectors r and θ in terms of the Cartesian unit vectors x and y . Unit Vectors. We are familiar with the unit vectors in Cartesian coordinates, where . points in the x-direction and . y-direction.
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.
OUTLINE : 1. INTRODUCING VECTORS. 1.1 Scalars. 1.2 Vectors. 1.3 Unit vectors. 1.4 Vector algebra. 1.5 Simple examples. 1.1 Scalars. A scalar is a quantity with magnitude but no direction, any mathematical entity that can be represented by a number. Examples: Mass, temperature, energy, charge ...
At this stage it is convenient to introduce unit vectors along each of the coordinate axes. Let xˆ be a vector of unit magnitude pointing in the positive x-direction, yˆ, a vector of unit magnitude in the positive y-direction, and zˆ a vector of unit magnitude in the positive z-direction.
A vector is a quantity that has both a magnitude (or size) and a direction. Both of these properties must be given in order to specify a vector completely. In this unit we describe how to write down vectors, how to add and subtract them, and how to use them in geometry.
