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#1 2007-09-10 03:48:01

Daniel123
Member
Registered: 2007-05-23
Posts: 663

Cartesian Unit Vectors

Ok I have a question.. can someone please explain to me what it is asking me to do, and maybe show me working for this example?

Find a unit vector in the direction of the following vector:

i + j

Thanks.

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#2 2007-09-10 04:00:23

JaneFairfax
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Registered: 2007-02-23
Posts: 6,868

Re: Cartesian Unit Vectors

Just divide the vector by its modulus. In this case,

.

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#3 2007-09-10 04:04:06

Daniel123
Member
Registered: 2007-05-23
Posts: 663

Re: Cartesian Unit Vectors

Its modulus?

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#4 2007-09-10 04:58:41

luca-deltodesco
Member
Registered: 2006-05-05
Posts: 1,470

Re: Cartesian Unit Vectors

modulus of a vector = magnitude of a vector = 'its length' in cartesian coordinates, use pythagoras


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The End Of All Things To Come.

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#5 2007-09-10 05:08:16

Ricky
Moderator
Registered: 2005-12-04
Posts: 3,791

Re: Cartesian Unit Vectors

If you take a vector of length L and you divide it by L, what size would you expect the resulting vector to be?


"In the real world, this would be a problem.  But in mathematics, we can just define a place where this problem doesn't exist.  So we'll go ahead and do that now..."

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#6 2007-09-10 06:00:18

Daniel123
Member
Registered: 2007-05-23
Posts: 663

Re: Cartesian Unit Vectors

How did you know do that form the question though? :S

Edit: And why do you do that division?

Last edited by Daniel123 (2007-09-10 06:04:20)

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#7 2007-09-10 06:45:29

Daniel123
Member
Registered: 2007-05-23
Posts: 663

Re: Cartesian Unit Vectors

Forget it... I understand now. Thanks. I didn't realise it wanted a magnitude of 1.

Last edited by Daniel123 (2007-09-10 06:45:57)

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