| 26 | Vectors |
You’ve already seen a few examples of vectors in this book. You might reasonably ask, “What, exactly, are vectors, and how do they work?” Technically, a vector is a mathematical expression for a quantity that has two independent properties, usually magnitude (or length) and direction (or orientation). Sometimes rectangular coordinates are used instead of magnitude and direction numbers. A vector quantity always needs two or more numbers to represent it. A scalar quantity needs only one. In this chapter, you’ll learn the basic properties of vectors in two and three dimensions.
MAGNITUDE AND DIRECTION
Vectors are denoted by boldface letters of the alphabet. In the xy plane, vectors a and b can be illustrated as rays from the origin ...
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