Manuel S.

Enverga University Foundation

College of Engineering and Technical
Department

Vector Analysis
(Vector Algebra, Vector Function, Vector
Integration, Dot and Cross Product, Triple
Product)
Library Work

Submitted by:
John Victor Adel T. Liwag
BSECE-IV

Submitted to:
Engr. Maria Luisa B. Canela

March 21, 2017

Vector Algebra
 It is possible to develop an Algebra of
vectors which proves useful in the study of
Geometry and Mechanics and other branches of
applied mathematics.
By the Algebra of Vectors will be meant a
body of work which prescribes various useful
manners of combining vectors and scalars
satisfying some laws which may be called Laws
of Competition.
1.) Multiplication of vectors by scalars
Let a, be any given vector and m be any
given scalar. Then the symbol called the product
of the vector, a, by the scalar, m is a vector
such that
(i) the length of the vector ma is m times or m,
times that of, according as m is positive
(including zero) or negative.
The symbol ma is also sometimes written as
am, so that the scalar, m, appears on the right
of the vector instead of on the left.

Fig. 1.6
The following results are immediate
consequence of the above definition of
multiplication of vectors by scalars.
l.) (mn)a=m(na),
Where m and n are my scalars and a, any vector
ll.) a=O
So that the product of the vector a by the zero
scalar is the zero vector
lll.) If two vectors have the same or parallel
supports, then each can be thought of as a
product of the other by a suitable scale being
the lengths of the vectors taken in an
appropriate order.
Thus for example:
if C be the midpoint of the line AB we have,
AB = 2AC, BC = 1/2 AB
Addition of Vectors
Let a, b be the two vectors. Take a point 0

Fig. 1.9
Let
 0A = a, AB = b
So that the terminal point of vector A is the initial
point of the vector
The vector OB
Is said to be the sum of the vectors a and b, and
we write
OB = 0A + AB = a + b
We have a + 0 = a, for every a; 0 being the
zero vector.
Note: As a matter of logical necessity we must
show that the sum of the two vectors is
independent of the choice of point O
Let 0, Oc be any two points and let
OA = a 0 A
AB = b A B

Laws of Addition
Commutative:
a+b=b+a
for any pairs of vectors a and b.
Let OA = a, AB = b
We have,
a + b = OB
0C = AB = b, CB = OA = a
So that we have
OB = 0C + CB = b + a
Hence a + b = b + a

Associative:
a + (b + c) = (b + a) + c
where a, b, and c are any three vectors.
Take point 0. Let
OA = a, AB = b, BC = c
We have
b + c = AB + BC = AC
a + (b + c) = OA + AC = 0C
Again
a + b = 0A + AB = OB
Thus,
(a + b) + c = OC = a + (b + c)
Subtraction
Difference if two vectors
Definition : If a, b be any two given vectors,
then we write
a + (-b) = a b
and call the composition subtraction.
Thus we have in particular
 a a = a + (-a) = a + (-1)(a) = 0
It is important to see that
OA = a, 0B = b AB = b a

In fact, we have
b a = b + (-a)
= OB + A0 = A0 + OB = AB
= -(a + b) = - a b. We have [(-a) + (-b)] + [b
+ a]
= (-a) + [(-b) + b] = - (a+b)
= -a + 0 + a
= (-a + a) + 0 = O
Thus, (-a) + (-b) = - (a+b)
The proof of the subtraction may also be
directly obtained

Sample Problem
ABCDER is a regular hexagon. Let AB = a and
BC = b. Find the vectors determined by the
other four sides taken in order. Also, express
the vectors AC, AD, AF, AE, and CE in terms of
a and b.

Solution AC = AB + BC = a + b
AD is parallel and double of BC,
AD = 2b
In ACD
AC + CD = AD
CD = AD AC
= 2b-(a+b)
=b a
Now,
DE = BA = -a
EF = CB = -b
FA = DC = -(b a) = a b
Again, AE = AD + DE = 2b + (-a) = 2b a
And CE = CD + DE = b a + (-a)
 = b 2a

References :
Narayan, Shanti and Mittal, P.K.(2002). Vector
Algebra,. India : S Chand and Company Ltd.
Erwin Kreysig (1993). Engineering
Mathematics. (7th edition). Singapore, John
Wiley and Sons Inc.
Fuller, Gordon and Tarwater, Dalton(June
1992), Analytic Geometry. Addison-Wesley
Printing Company
The Dot or Scalar Product
The dot or scalar product of two vectors A
and B, denoted by A B (read as A dot B) is
defined as the product of the magnitudes of A
and B and the cosine of the angle between
them, in symbols.
A B = ABcos , 0
Note that A B is a scalar and not a vector if,
The following laws are valid:
1.) A B = B A
2.) A (B + C) = A B + A C
3.) m (A B) = (mA) B = A (mB) = (A B)m
4.) i i = j j = k k = 1, i j = j k = k i = O
5.) If A = A, I + A2j + A3k
6.) If A B = O and A and B are not null vectors,
then A and B are perpendicular.
Sample
Prove A B = B A
A B = ABcos = BA cos = B A
Then the commutative law for dot product is
valid. Similarly, the magnitude of the vector
component of P along any line L can be written
P.eL where eL is the unique vector along the line
L. (Some authors use u as unit vector) Figure
1.8 shows a plane through the tail end A of
vector P and a plane through the head B, both
planes being perpendicular to line L. The planes
intersect line L at points C and D, The vector CD
is the component of P along L, and its
magnitude equals P.eL cos
References:
Fuller, Gordon and Tarwater, Dalton(June 1992),
Analytic Geometry. Addison-Wesley Printing
Company
The Cross Product
The cross product of u and v is defined and
best memorized as the expansion of a 3 by 3
determinant.
UxV= i j k
u1 u2 u3 = u2 u3 i - u1 u3 + u1 u2 k
v1 v2 v3 v2 v3 v1 v3 v1 v2
The cross product of u and v is vector, with
the properly that is orthogonal to the two
vectors u and v. Thus if we take the dot product of
u x v and then u x v with v, we get zero both
times.
(u x v) u = 0, and (u x v) v = 0
This check should always be performed to
ensure that the cross product is correct.
Example : Find u x v where u = (3, -4, 1), v =
(5, 2, -6)

Solution : We have
i j k
UxV=3 -4 1 = -4 1 i- 3 1 j +3 -
4 k
5 2 -6 2 -6 5 6 5 2
= 22i (-23j) + 26k or <22, 23, 26>
Now we check:
(u x v) u = 22, 23, 26 3, -4, 1
= (22)(3) + (23)(-4) + (26)(1)
= 66 92 + 26
=0
(u x v) v = 22, 23, 26 5, 2, -6
= (22)(5) + (23)(2) + (26)(-6)
= 110 + 46 156
=0
Since both cases produces 0, we are confident
that the cross product is correct.

Properties of Cross Product

1.) Reversing the order of u and v results in a
negated cross product. That is v x u = - (u x v)
Visually, think of u and v as lying in a
common plane in which u and v lie. Their
cross product u x v is a vector that is
orthogonal to the plane in which u and v lie. If
we cross v and u we get (u x v), which also a
vector orthogonal to the plane in which u and
v lie.
2.) The magnitude of the cross product is u x
v = u v sin . This is equal to the area of
the parallelogram formed by u and v. Half of
this value is the area of a triangle formed by u
and v.

References:
Fuller, Gordon and Tarwater, Dalton(June
1992), Analytic Geometry. Addison-Wesley
Printing Company
Triple Products
Given three vectors A, B, and C. We list
three products with this formula.
(A x B) x C = B (A C) A(B C);
A x (B x C) = B (A C) C(A B)
a1 a2 a3
(A x B) C = b1 b2 b3
 c1 c2 c3
where the entries are the coordinates of three
vectors. The first two products are called vector
triple products, the third is called scalar triple
product. The proof for the formulas for the
vector triple products are complicated. But the
proof for the formula for the scalar triple product
is straightforward. The reader should be able to
do it alone.
To remember the formulas for the two
vector triple products, there is a quick way. You
see that the final product of the first vector
triple product will be perpendicular to A x B so it
will lie on the planes spanned by A and B. It is
perpendicular to C, so there will be no
component in the C direction. So the first vector
triple product is a linear combination of A and B,
not C. The coefficients are the linear products of
the remaining two.
Recall that the magnitude of (length) of A x B
is the area of the parallelogram spanned by A
and B, and the inner product with C is the
magnitude C cos which is exactly the height
of the parallelepiped with a slanted height C
and a bottom parallelogram spanned by A and
B. Thus the magnitude of the scalar triple
bottom parallelogram formed by the three
vectors.
One can form other triple products but they
can be reduced quickly to one of the three
mentioned here. One may notice that the
second vector triple product can be reduced to
the first product easily. So essentially there is
only one vector triple product and one scalar
triple product.

Fig. 1.1.3.3 The volume of the paeallelepiped is

the magnitude of (A x B)/center C
References:
Beer, F.P. (1998) Vector Mechanics for Engineers
(5th ed.) New York : McGraw Hill Book Company
Vector Functions
We first saw vector functions back when we
were looking at the Equation of Lines. In that
section, we talked about them because we
wrote down the equation R3 in terms of vector
function (vector valued function). In this
section we want to look a little closer at them
and we also want to look at some vector
functions in R3 other than lines.
A vector function is a function that takes one or
more variables and returns a vector. Vector
functions here will be of a single variable as
most of the places where vector functions of a
single variable as most of the places where we
will however briefly look at vector functions at
the end of this section.
A vector functions of a single variable in R2 and
R3 have the form
F(t) = f(t), g(t)
Respectively where f(t), g(t) and h(t) are called
component functions.
The main idea of this is that we want to discuss
is that the graphing and identifying the graph
given by a vector of functions.
References:
Beer, F.P. (1998) Vector Mechanics for Engineers
(5th ed.) New York : McGraw Hill Book
Company