Technological Principles –

Level 4

Lecture 2 –
Pythagoras, Trigonometry &
Vectors

Dr Philip Sewell
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
 INTRODUCTION
The requirement to work out lengths and angles in triangles for solving design
problems is common.

This lecture will introduce how to calculate these values for both right-angled
and non-right-angled triangles (Pythagoras’ theorem and trigonometry).

An application of these theories will be presented through the introduction of

vectors.
 PYTHAGORAS’ THEOREM

For any right-angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of
the squares of the other two sides.

Put more simply, in the triangle below, a2+b2=c2, where c is the hypotenuse.
 PYTHAGORAS’ THEOREM

Example
Suppose the hypotenuse is of length 6 and the side a is of length 2. Side b can be
found from:

22 + b2 = 62

4 + b2 = 36

b2 = 32

b= 32 = 5.66
 TRIGONOMETRY
The hypotenuse, adjacent, opposite and associated angles can be determined
using the following three trigonometric ratios.

Make sure you know ‘SOHCAHTOA’!

 TRIGONOMETRY

Useful Tip

opp

tan adj

Useful for arranging three term equations

 TRIGONOMETRY

Example
A right-angled triangle has one internal angle of 60o and the
opposite side to this angle has a length of 4 units. What are
the lengths of the other sides of the triangle?

To determine the length of the adjacent:

opposite
Tan 
adjacent

Therefore:

opposite 4
adjacent    2.31
Tan Tan60
 TRIGONOMETRY
Example
A right-angled triangle has one internal angle of 60o and the
opposite side to this angle has a length of 4 units. What are
the lengths of the other sides of the triangle?

To determine the length of the hypotenuse:

opposite
Sin  Check:
hypotenuse
42 + 2.312 = hyp2
Therefore:
hyp = 4 2  2.312  4.62 
opposite 4
hypotenuse    4.62
Sin Sin60
 TRIGONOMETRY
Example
A right-angled triangle has sides of length 3, 4 and 5 units.
Determine the internal angles of the triangle? 5 b?o
4
a?o
To determine the angle a: 3
opposite
Sin 
hypotenuse

Therefore:

 opposite  4
  Sin1    Sin1    53.13o
 hypotenuse  5
 TRIGONOMETRY
Example
A right-angled triangle has sides of length 3, 4 and 5 units.
Determine the internal angles of the triangle? 5 b?o
4
a?o
To determine the angle b: 3
adjacent
Cos 
hypotenuse
Check: 90 + 53.13 + 36.87 = 180 
Therefore:

 adjacent  4
  Cos1    Cos1    36.87o
 hypotenuse  5
 The Sine and Cosine Rules
(for non-right-angled triangles)
Often the triangles occurring in real problems are not right-angled, in which case we
can use the "sine rule" and the "cosine rule" to help us.

In the triangle below, the three sides have lengths a, b and c and angles A, B and
C. Notice that the side of length a is opposite the angle A, and similarly for b and c.

The Sine Rule:

a b c
 
SinA SinB SinC
This allows us to work out any length and angle that we don't know, provided we
do know some of the lengths and angles in the triangle.
 The Sine and Cosine Rules
(for non-right-angled triangles)
Example
Suppose we know that angle A in the triangle
above is 45o, that angle B is 30o and that the
length b is 2 units.

Can you work out the remaining angle C and the

lengths a and c?

To work out the remaining angle, we need to remember that the angles within a
triangle always add up to 180o.

Since we know A and B add up to 75o, so C must be 105o.

Now to find the length a, we can use the first part of the sine rule above.

We can rearrange a/sinA = b/sinB to get a=bsinA/sinB.

 The Sine and Cosine Rules
(for non-right-angled triangles)
Example
Suppose we know that angle A in the triangle
above is 45o, that angle B is 30o and that the
length b is 2 units.

Can you work out the remaining angle C and the

lengths a and c?
Since we know A and B we can evaluate this expression to get:

a = 2 sin(45o)/sin(30o) = 2.828 approx

Finally we can use the second part of the sine rule to find the length c:

b/sinB = c/sinC, so c = bsinC/sinB

That gives c = 2sin(105o)/sin(30o) = 3.864

 The Sine and Cosine Rules
(for non-right-angled triangles)
The Cosine Rule:

Given 2 sides and the included angle use:

a2 = b2 + c2 – 2bccosA
or
b2 = c2 + a2 – 2cacosB
or
c2 = a2 + b2 – 2abcosC

Given all 3 sides use:

cosA = (b2 + c2 – a2)/2bc
or
cosB = (a2 + c2 – b2)/2ac
or
cosC = (a2 + b2 – c2)/2ab
 SCALARS AND VECTORS
Physical quantities can be divided into two categories:

Scalars - these have magnitude only.

Vectors - these have magnitude and direction.

 SCALARS AND VECTORS
Example
5km
4km
The total distance driven by the car is:
2km
6 + 3 + 2 + 5 = 16km

The displacement of the car is: 3km

4km North 6km

Distance is a scalar as it has magnitude only.

Displacement is a vector as it has both direction and magnitude.

 SCALARS AND VECTORS
The following table gives some further examples:

Quantity Scalar Vector

Mass 

Weight 

Temperature 

Speed 

Velocity 
Acceleration 
Force 
Area 
Volume 

Energy 

Work done 

Pressure 
 Diagrammatic Representation of
Vectors
Vectors can be represented in magnitude and direction by a straight arrow of the
appropriate length and direction.
Vectors are usually designated by being underlined (as shown), or on the printed
page by bold type.

Sometimes, vectors are both bold and underlined. Here, the arrow (vector) could
represent a Force, for example.
 Vectors – Magnitudes, Directions
and Components
Consider pulling a truck along on level ground by a force F newtons.

Assume in plan view that the direction of force F is directly ahead but that the side
view shows that the pull is along the direction of the tow bar at  to the horizontal.

If  is 90o then all the pull is upwards and the truck will not roll - you'll just be trying
to pull the truck up off the ground.

If  is about 80o, some of the pull is now in the forward direction, but most of it is
still trying to pull the truck off the ground.

As  moves down to 0o, more and more effort will go into pulling the truck along.
 Vectors – Magnitudes, Directions
and Components
You can measure what proportion goes into pulling the truck along - and how much
into pulling it upwards.

This is done by finding the components of the total force in each of the relevant
directions.

Draw the vector F, representing its magnitude by the length of the vector and
indicate its sense using a direction, , measured from some datum direction (in this
case, to the right and horizontal).

The diagram shows the 'full' force, F, and its two components in the horizontal and
vertical directions, Fx and Fy respectively.
 Vectors – Magnitudes, Directions
and Components

It's easy to see from this geometry and trigonometry of this diagram that:

Fx Fy
cos   and sin 
F F
so that the horizontal and vertical components are:

Fx  F cos  Fy  F sin
 Vectors – Magnitudes,
Directions and Components
For the truck problem, a pull of 20 N is applied along the direction of the tow bar.

What will be the effect on the horizontal and vertical components if the tow bar
makes an angle of (a) 90o, (b) 80o, (c) 30o, (d) 60o and (e) 0o to the horizontal?
20N

|F|  HORIZONTAL VERTICAL NOTE:

COMPONENT COMPONENT
Fx = Fcos Fy = Fsin 10 + 17.32 ≠ 20!!!
20 90o 20cos90 = 0 20sin90 = 20
FORCES CAN ONLY
20 80o 20cos80 = 3.47 20sin80 = 19.7
BE ADDED
20 30o 20cos30 = 17.32 20sin30 = 10 DIRECTLY IF THEY
20 60 o 20cos60 = 10 20sin60 = 17.32 ARE IN THE SAME
20 0o 20cos0 = 20 20sin0 = 0 DIRECTION
 Vectors – Magnitudes, Directions
and Components
|F|  HORIZONTAL VERTICAL
COMPONENT COMPONENT
Fx = Fcos Fy = Fsin
20 90o 20cos90 = 0 20sin90 = 20
20 80o 20cos80 = 3.47 20sin80 = 19.7
20 30o 20cos30 = 17.32 20sin30 = 10
20 60 o 20cos60 = 10 20sin60 = 17.32
20 0o 20cos0 = 20 20sin0 = 0

For a given value of F, you can see that you get more of a horizontal pull when the
angle is 30o to the horizontal rather than 80o.

Even at 60o though, you are still only getting half the forward pull than you would
get if you did the obvious and pulled directly in line with the motion (0o).

Note that pulling directly horizontally doesn't waste any of your effort trying to lift
the truck off the ground.
 Vectors – Magnitudes, Directions
and Components
Very often you will be looking at horizontal and vertical components - but not always.
In general, if you want the component of any vector, F, in a direction at any angle 
to the vector, it is always Fcos

This becomes obvious from the following diagram:

 Vectors – Magnitudes, Directions
and Components
Example
A truck is pulled up a slope of 20o with the tow bar at an angle of 35o to the line of
the slope. Determine the pull (a) up the slope and (b) in a horizontal direction.

(a) UP SLOPE: Fcos35 = 100cos35 = 81.9N

(b) HORIZONTAL: Fcos55=100cos55 = 57.4N

 The Resultant of Several
Vectors/Forces
In the previous example, there was only one force pulling on the truck. In this case
the components of this force gave the amount of pull in each of the components'
directions.

Imagine now a point mass sitting on a smooth table top. To the mass are
connected several strings, each of which is being pulled with a different force by a
person sitting at the table. You can represent such a situation by drawing the
vectors of each of the forces pulling on the mass.

Note: the length of the vectors here do not

represent the length of the strings! The
lengths represent the magnitude of each 'pull'.

It is possible to determine the overall, or RESULTANT, force acting on the mass.

 The Resultant of Several
Vectors/Forces
There are two ways to solve these problems:

1.Graphically

2.Mathematically

The first method cannot ever be as accurate as the second so, unfortunately, you
have to know both!
 1. Finding the Resultant
Graphically
You simply join the vectors (in any order, but it's obviously best to do this
methodically) nose-to-tail and you find the resultant by joining the start of the first
vector to the end of the last vector.

For the below example, starting with the vector that's at about 2 o'clock and
working anticlockwise, this would look like:
 1. Finding the Resultant
Graphically
Example
What do you suppose it means if the end of the last vector joins up with the beginning of the
first vector?

There is No resultant – system is in EQUILIBRIUM

 2. Finding the Resultant
Mathematically
Here, you:

• need to know the magnitude and direction of the original forces,

• find the components of each force in any two arbitrary directions (usually
‘horizontally’ and ‘vertically’

• sum all the components in each of these directions, and finally

• determine the resultant of these two sums of components

 2. Finding the Resultant
Mathematically
Suppose the following magnitudes and directions of the forces were given:


Force Magnitude Direction*
F1 10 N 30o
F2 15 N 160o
F3 8N 225o
F4 5N 300o *all relative to ‘the positive x-axis’

Now find the components of each force in the positive x and positive y directions
and the sum of each of the sets of components.
 2. Finding the Resultant
Mathematically
Now find the components of each force in the positive x and positive y directions
and the sum of each of the sets of components.
Force x- component y- component
(Fcos ) (Fsin )
F1 8.660 5 15N 160o
F2 -14.095 5.130 30o 10N
F3 -5.657 -5.657 225o
300o 5N
F4 2.5 -4.330 8N
 2. Finding the Resultant
Mathematically
Now find the components of each force in the positive x and positive y directions
and the sum of each of the sets of components.
Force x- component y- component
(Fcos ) (Fsin )
F1 8.660 5
F2 -14.095 5.130
F3 -5.657 -5.657
F4 2.5 -4.330
Sum of -8.592 0.143
Resultant's
components

From these two components you now find the overall resultant.
RESULTANT By Pythag: R2 = (-8.592)2 + (0.143)2
 0.143 R = 73.843 = 8.593
 = tan-1 (0.143/8.592) = 0.953o
-8.592
i.e. approx 179o to the positive x-axis