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MITRES 18 007 Supp Notes03 PDF
MITRES 18 007 Supp Notes03 PDF
-
A
Introduction
I n t h e same way t h a t w e s t u d i e d n u m e r i c a l c a l c u l u s a f t e r we l e a r n e d
n u m e r i c a l a r i t h m e t i c , w e c a n now s t u d y v e c t o r c a l c u l u s s i n c e we have
a l r e a d y s t u d i e d v e c t o r a r i t h m e t i c . Q u i t e simply (and t h i s w i l l be
e x p l o r e d i n t h e remaining s e c t i o n s of t h i s c h a p t e r ) , w e might have a
vector quantity t h a t v a r i e s with respect t o another variable, e i t h e r a
scalar or a vector. I n t h i s c h a p t e r w e s h a l l b e most i n t e r e s t e d i n
t h e c a s e where w e have a v e c t o r which v a r i e s w i t h r e s p e c t t o a s c a l a r .
A r a t h e r s i m p l e p h y s i c a l s i t u a t i o n of t h i s c a s e would be t h e problem
where w e measure t h e f o r c e on an o b j e c t a t d i f f e r e n t times. That i s ,
f o r c e ( a v e c t o r ) i s t h e n a f u n c t i o n of t i m e ( a s c a l a r ) .
I n t h i s con-
t e x t w e can a s k whether o u r f o r c e i s a c o n t i n u o u s f u n c t i o n of t i m e , a
d i f f e r e n t i a b l e f u n c t i o n o f t i m e , and s o f o r t h ,
A t t h e same t i m e , t h i s t y p e of e x p l o r a t i o n opens up new avenues of
i n v e s t i g a t i o n and s u p p l i e s u s w i t h e x c e l l e n t p r a c t i c a l r e a s o n s f o r ex-
p l o r i n g t h e r a t h e r a b s t r a c t n o t i o n of h i g h e r dimensional s p a c e s . More
s p e c i f i c a l l y , l e t u s keep i n mind t h a t it i s a r a t h e r overly-simple
s i t u a t i o n i n r e a l l i f e when t h e q u a n t i t y under c o n s i d e r a t i o n depends
on o n l y one o t h e r v a r i a b l e . For example, w i t h r e s p e c t t o our above
i l l u s t r a t i o n of f o r c e depending upon t i m e , l e t u s n o t e t h a t i n a r e a l -
l i f e s i t u a t i o n t h e o b j e c t w e a r e s t u d y i n g h a s n o n - n e g l i g i b l e s i z e and
f o r t h i s r e a s o n a f o r c e a p p l i e d a t one p o i n t on t h e o b j e c t h a s d i f f e r -
e n t e f f e c t s a t o t h e r - p o i n t s . ~ h u s ,w e might f i n d t h a t o u r v e c t o r
f o r c e depends on t h e f o u r v a r i a b l e s x , y, z , and t . That i s , t h e
f o r c e may be a f u n c t i o n of b o t h p o s i t i o n ( t h r e e dimensions) and t i m e .
I n terms of a f u n c t i o n , o u r i n p u t i s a 4 - t u p l e ( t h a t i s , an o r d e r e d
a r r a y [sequence] of f o u r r e a l numbers x , y , z , and t ) . P i c t o r i a l l y ,
Functions R e v i s i t e d
When we f i r s t introduced t h e concept of f u n c t i o n s , we mentioned t h a t a
f u n c t i o n was a r u l e which assigned t o members of one s e t members of
another s e t . W e p o i n t e d o u t t h a t t h e two s e t s involved could be
a r b i t r a r y b u t t h a t i n t h e study of r e a l v a r i a b l e s our a t t e n t i o n , b y
d e f i n i t i o n , i s confined t o t h e case i n which both s e t s a r e s u b s e t s of
t h e r e a l numbers.
W e a l s o developed t h e v i s u a l a i d of t h e f u n c t i o n machine, wherein i f
f :A+B, w e had
f -machine
(elements (elements
The p o i n t of t h i s c h a p t e r i s t h a t , i n t h e r e a l w o r l d , w e a r e o f t e n
c o n f r o n t e d w i t h s i t u a t i o n s i n which w e a r e d e a l i n g w i t h v e c t o r s r a t h e r
t h a n s c a l a r s , whereupon w e have t h e s i t u a t i o n t h a t e i t h e r t h e i n p u t o r
t h e o u t p u t of o u r f-machine could be v e c t o r s .
I n o u r e a r l i e r example, w e spoke of f o r c e ( a v e c t o r ) a s a f u n c t i o n of
t i m e ( a s c a l a r ) . I n t h i s c a s e o u r f-machine l o o k s l i k e
input f -machine
t (scalar)
+
More c o n c r e t e l y , w e might have a f o r c e F d e f i n e d i n t h e xy-plane by
From (1) it i s c l e a r t h a t d i f f e r e n t v a l u e s of t h e s c a l a r t y i e l d d i f -
+
f e r e n t v a l u e s of t h e v e c t o r F. F o r i n s t a n c e , i f t = 3 t h e n
.
8 = 3 1 + $j Moreover, i t s h o u l d seem f a i r l y obvious t h a t w e might
l i k e t o a b b r e v i a t e t h e above i n f o r m a t i o n i n the form
The f i n a l p o s s i b i l i t y i s t h a t we have
Equation ( 4 ) denotes a v e c t o r f u n c t i o n of a v e c t o r v a r i a b l e . An
example of t h i s s i t u a t i o n might be t h a t a t any g i v e n i n s t a n t we know
t h e f o r c e ( a v e c t o r ) being e x e r t e d on a p a r t i c l e from which we want t o
determine t h e a c c e l e r a t i o n of t h e p a r t i c l e ( a c c e l e r a t i o n i s a l s o a
v e c t o r - i n f a c t i n Newtonian physics t h e d i r e c t i o n of the a c c e l e r a t i o n
i s t h e same a s t h a t of t h e f o r c e , which means t h a t t h e "lawH f = ma
+
remains c o r r e c t i n t h e v e c t o r form f = mg) . Again p i c t o r i a l l y ,
input output
";-machine " + /
3 (vector) a (vector)
Pictorially,
-t
x f -machine (x,
( s c a l a r1 (vector) *
T h i s o b s e r v a t i o n i s t h e backbone of t h e n e x t s e c t i o n .
l i m f (x) = L
x+a
then
then
-+ -+
n o t i c e t h a t f ( x ) - L means p i c t o r i a l l y t h a t
The s m a l l e r t h e d i f f e r e n c e between
-+
f ( x ) and 2 t h e c l o s e r i s t h e head of f
+
t o t h e head of L which means t h a t
( i s more n e a r l y e q u a l t o t.
. .
I n o t h e r words, t h e n , i n terms of what t h e a n a l y t i c e x p r e s s i o n s mean
g e o m e t r i c a l l y , w e s h o u l d be convinced t h a t t h e f o r m a l d e f i n i t i o n a g r e e s
w i t h o u r i n t u i t i o n . Again, i n t e r m s o f a p i c t u r e
@ If x i s i n h e r e
/
> x-axis
( C i r c l e of r a d i u s E
c e n s e r e d a t t h e head
J of I.)
-b
@ t h e n f ( x ) t e r m i n a t e s i n h e r e ( p r o v i d e d it o r i g i n a t e s a t t h e t a i l
of 2,.
The l e n g t h of one s i d e of a t r i a n g l e
c a n n o t exceed t h e sum of t h e l e n g t h s
of t h e o t h e r o t h e r two s i d e s .
a
W e a l s o used such f a c t s a s
i f and o n l y i f a = 0 . I f w e now v e c t o r i z e ( 3 ) a p p r o p r i a t e l y , w e
obtain
+
la1 3 0 and 121 = 0
I f we t r y t o v e c t o r i z e ( 5 ) by b r u t e f o r c e we f i n d f o r one t h i n g t h a t
t h e r e s u l t i n g e q u a t i o n may w e l l b e meaningless. F o r i n s t a n c e , t h e
statement
Equation ( 6 ) i s u n d e f i n e d . I f we i n t e r p r e t t h e m u l t i p l i c a t i o n a s
s c a l a r m u l t i p l i c a t i o n and v e c t o r i z e Equation ( 5 ) a c c o r d i n g l y , we
obtain
(where on t h e r i g h t s i d e we mean t h e u s u a l m u l t i p l i c a t i o n s i n c e both
1 ;Iand I g ] a r e numbers) .
-
b u t they both happen t o be f a l s e . Namely,
-+ +
a-b = (;I IS( cos
Hence,
result that
I n a s i m i l a r way,
laxbl = If1 ( 1 . \;
Isin'
b
Suppose l i r n
x+a
f (x) + + +
= Ll and l i r n g ( x ) = L2
x+@
.
Then l i r n
x+a
(f ( x ) + G(x)) = Zl + t2 .
To prove t h i s theorem, w e w r i t e down t h e analogous proof i n t h e s c a l a r
case. ( W e w i l l n o t motivate t h i s proof s i n c e t h i s was a l r e a d y done i n
P a r t 1 of o u r course. However, it w i l l be an i n t e r e s t i n g check f o r
you t o s e e how " n a t u r a l n t h e proof now seems t o you.)
W e had :
Then l i r n [ f ( x ) + g ( x ) l = L1 + L2
x+a
and
x+a
and
Theorem 2
+
I f l i m ? ( x ) = L1 and i f l i m g ( x ) = t2, then i f h(x) = f (x) a x )I
x+a x+a
-
Proof
Had t h i s been w r i t t e n i n terms of s c a l a r s r a t h e r than v e c t o r s , o u r
proof would have taken t h e form
Since 1 Ll 1 and1 L2 1 are bounded and both 1 f (x) Ll 1 and1 g (x) L2 1 can - -
be made arbitrarily small by choosing x sufficiently near 5, the right
side of (1) gets arbitrarily small as x a. This guarantees that
+
(This last step is independent of any vector arithmetic since all dot
products are numbers not vectors.)
Now since 1; 61 ,< 121 161 (observe that we don't need 1; 9 ) = 121 1611,
our last inequality yields
(Notice that there are no dot products here since 1 t21 , I 'E(x) - El1 etc.
are numbers.)
Our last equation has the same properties as (1) and so the desired
result follows.
Additional examples are left for the exercises. Our aim in this section
was simply to illustrate that our limit theorems for scalars do indeed
carry over, and in a rather natural way, to vectors.
E
Derivatives of Vector Functions of Scalar Variables
In the study of ordinary calculus, we mentioned that the study of
differentiation could be viewed as an application of the limit theorems.
That is, when we defined f' by
-
f' (xl) = lim
Ax+O
f(xl + Ax)
A-x
f (xl)
1
every property of f' was then computed by the use of the limit theorems
applied to (1) .
The point is that we now do the same thing for vectors. We observe
that the expression
scalar vector
+ (xl + AX) -
= lim
Ax+O
Ax) +
AX
[f (xl) + (xl)I
1
- f (xl) - g(xl)
Ax+O
*(xl + Ax)
AX - 1 g(xl + AX)
AX
-t
( I n t h i s l a s t c a s e beware of changing t h e r o l e s of t h e f a c t o r s
+ +
a x b = - 6 x ;).I
2~:
:
y,L'
,,i
Then s i n c e a c o n s t a n t times a v a r i a b l e has a s i t s d e r i v a t i v e t h e c o n s t a n t
t +
times t h e d e r i v a t i v e of t h e v a r i a b l e , and s i n c e 1, J , and k a r e c o n s t a n t s ,
:..
,..-
I L*
=
3.y- we o b t a i n :
5,
-1.
'.L,
\
. .
s
ri-
*-
g .
US".
*..
;r '
.
components. Further details are left to the text and the exercises,
but we want to emphasize again the fact that our definition of limit
familiar in the scalar case are also valid in the vector case.
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