(ENGINEERING MECHANICS-I)

STATIC

Lecture #2
Vectors

Instructor
Dr. Mohammed Alamri
 Contents

■ Objective(s) of the present lecture (#2)

■ Quantities: Scalars and Vectors
■ Vector Operations
■ Addition and subtraction of two vectors
■ Vector components
■ Unit vectors
■ Direction cosines
■ Scalar multiplication and division
■ Vector multiplication (Dot and Cross product)
■ Position vector
■ Further reading
 Objectives of the Present lecture

■ To define scalar and vector quantities

■ To provide an overview of most common vector
operations
Review of Law of sines and cosines

Law of sines Law of cosines

Example
Find the side length (L) and or the angle (θ) for the following
cases?
120
⁰

25
30⁰ 125
⁰

20
65 m

m
56 m 120⁰
30
116⁰
20
m m
35⁰
X
 Quantities
Scalar
■ Magnitude alone is
associated.
Examples: Speed, Mass, time,
volume, density, energy etc.
Vector
■ Possess magnitude (or
size) as well as direction
Examples: Weight, Force,
Displacement, velocity,
acceleration, moment,
momentum etc.
Addition of two Vectors

Parallelogram law Triangle law

Subtraction of two Vectors

Parallelogram law Triangle law

Components of a Vector

Any two or more vectors whose sum equals a

certain vector are said to be the components of
that vector.
■ Rectangular: mutually perpendicular.
■ Non-Rectangular: mutually not perpendicular.
 Unit Vector(s)

Cartesian or Standard Unit Vectors

Direction Cosines
Vector Multiplications
■ Dot or Scalar Product ■ Cross or Vector Product

The cross product of the two

vectors is defined as a vector with
magnitude AB sinθ and a direction
specified by the right hand rule.
Triple Scalar and Vector Multiplications
■ Triple Scalar Product ■ Triple Vector Product
Position Vector
A position vector locates one point in space
relative to another.
is a position vector that runs from point A to
another point B.
Further Reading
Read more about vectors from:

Engineering Mechanics, Volume 1, Statics, 6th Edition, SI units Version

by J. L. Meriam and L. G. Kraige
Thank You