CHAPTER 1: VECTORS AND VECTOR OPERATIONS

UNIT VECTORS
AND PRODUCT OF VECTORS
(Part 2)
VECTOR MULTIPLICATION: Cross Product

- vector product (result is a )
- obeys
   
- non-commutative ( A  B  B  A ) 
C
   
AB  C B
 
A  B  AB sin 


magnitude of the cross product A
k̂

 iˆ ĵ
iˆ  iˆ  ˆj  ˆj  kˆ  kˆ  0 iˆ  ˆj  kˆ ˆj  kˆ  iˆ kˆ  iˆ  ˆj ˆj  iˆ  k
VECTOR MULTIPLICATION: Cross Product

 
A  B  ( A x iˆ  A y ˆj  A z kˆ)  (B x iˆ  B y ˆj  B z kˆ)
+ - +
iˆ ˆj kˆ
 
A  B  Ax Ay Az
Bx By Bz
 
A  B  iˆ( A y B z  A z B y )  ˆj ( A x B z  A z B x )  kˆ( A x B y  A y B x )
VECTOR MULTIPLICATION: Cross Product
 
Example: ˆ
A  3iˆ  2 ˆj  4k and B  2iˆ  ˆj  3kˆ
 
Find : a. A  B
Solution:
iˆ ˆj kˆ
 
a. A  B  3 2 4
2 1 3

 iˆ[(2)(3)  (4)(1)]  ˆj[(3)(3)  (4)(2)]  kˆ[(3)(1)  (2)(2)]

 iˆ(6  4)  ˆj (9  8)  kˆ(3  4)

 
A  B  10iˆ  17 ˆj  kˆ