Chapter 5 Vectors Mathematics at Leeds（第五章在利兹向量数学）.pdf

Chapter 5 Vectors 5.1 Definition of Vectors Vectors are quantities which have both magnitude and direction. For example, a dis- placement from a fixed point A to a fixed point B is a vector because its magnitude is the distance between A and B and the direction is the direction in which it is necessary to move in a straight line to get from A to B. Other examples of vectors are velocity and forces. For example, the gravitational force on an object is a vector because its magnitude is the weight of the object and the direction is downwards. Vectors are represented in diagrams by directional lines, i.e. lines with arrows indi- cating the direction (figure 5.1). This type of representation is used whether the vector is an actual displacement or if it represents some other quantity such as a force. Figure 5.1: The line shows the vector from point A to point B. Vectors are often written as lower case symbols in bold (e.g. a), as lower case symbols underlined (especially in hand-written text, e.g. a) or in terms of the initial and final −→ (terminal) points with an arrow above indicating the direction (e.g. AB). In contrast to vectors, normal quantities which do not have direction are called scalars. Examples of scalars are temperature and pollutant concentration. 37 5.2 Equal Vectors Vectors are equal when they have the same magnitude and direction. So for example in −→ −−→ Fig. 5.2, AB = CD. −→ −−→ Figure 5.2: Two equal vectors AB and CD, i.e. a = b. −→ −−→ In the above example, if AB = a and CD = b, then we write a = b. 5.3 Negative Vectors The vector −a has th