Vector operations

Addition, subtraction and multiplication of

a vector

Addition of vectors

Let and be two vectors in a plane. +

denotes the sum of the vectors and .
There are two ways to find the sum of
two or more vectors:
1. The Polygon Method
2. The Parallelogram Method

1. The Polygon Method

Let
the
at
(=

and be two vectors in a plane, as in

diagram. We place the initial point of
the terminal point of to make
)

2. The Parallelogram
Method
In the parallelogram method for vector
addition, the vectors are moved to a
common origin and the parallelogram
constructed as follows:

Example 1:

Find + + in the figure:

Solution:

Properties of Vectore
Addition:
1.
The sum of any two vectors in P is also a
vector in P (closure property).
2. The sum of any two vectors in P is
commutative (commutative property).
3. The sum of any three vectors in P is
associative (associative property).
4. The sum of the zero vector and a vector in P
is the vector itself (identity element).
5. The additive inverse of any vector is : + ()
= 0 (additive inverse)

2. Subtraction of vectors
Since subtraction is the inverse of
addition, we can find the difference of
two vectors and by adding the vectors
and (opposite of ) using either the
parallelogram method ( - + ()) or the
polygon method.

Multiplication of a vector
by scalar
Multiplying a vector by a scalar makes
the vector longer or shorter depending
on the value of the scalar.
If the scalar is greater than 1 or less than
1, multiplying makes a longer vector.
If the scalar is between 1 and 1 and nonzero, it makes a shorter vector

 If the scalar is positive, multiplying does

not change the direction.
If the scalar is negative, multiplying will
make the vectors direction opposite.
For a real number a and a vector ,
1. if a> 0 then vector a has the same
direction as and the length |a| = a||
2. if a< 0 then vector a has the opposite
direction to and the length |a| = |a|||
3. if a= 0 then a =

Properties of the
Multiplication of a Vector
by a Scalar

For
any vectors , , and and real numbers a

and b, the following properties are satisfied:

1. a is a vector in the plane

2. (ab) = a(b)
3. (a+b) = a + b
4. a(+) = a+ b
5. 1
6. a =