# Vector (spatial)

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In physics and in vector calculus, a spatial vector is a concept characterized by a magnitude, which is a scalar, and a direction (which can be defined in a 3-dimensional space by the Euler angles). Although it is often described by a number of "components", each of which is dependent upon the particular coordinate system being used, a vector is an object with properties which do not depend on the coordinate system used to describe it.

A common example of a vector is force — it has a magnitude and an orientation in three dimensions (or however many spatial dimensions one has), and multiple forces sum according to the parallelogram law.

A spatial vector can be formally defined by its relationship to the spatial coordinate system under rotations. Alternatively, it can be defined in a coordinate-free fashion via a tangent space of a three-dimensional manifold in the language of differential geometry. These definitions are discussed in more detail below.

A spatial vector is a special case of a tensor and is also analogous to a four-vector in relativity (and is sometimes therefore called a three-vector in reference to the three spatial dimensions, although this term also has another meaning for p-vectors of differential geometry). Vectors are the building blocks of vector fields and vector calculus.

The word vector is also now used for more general concepts (see also vector and generalizations below), but this article describes the original spatial meaning except where otherwise noted.

## Definitions

Informally, a vector is a quantity characterized by a magnitude (in mathematics a number, in physics a number times a unit) and a direction, often represented graphically by an arrow. Examples are "moving north at 90 km/h" or "pulling towards the center of Earth with a force of 70 newtons".

The notion of having a "magnitude" and "direction" is formalized by saying that the vector has components that transform like the coordinates under rotations. That is, if the coordinate system undergoes a rotation described by a rotation matrix R, so that a coordinate vector x is transformed to x' = Rx, then any other vector v is similarly transformed via v' = Rv. This ensures the invariance of the operations dot product, Euclidean norm, cross product, gradient, divergence, curl, and scalar triple product, and trivially for vector addition and subtraction, and scalar multiplication. The terms scalar and vector as used here include pseudoscalars and pseudovectors or axial vectors (see also below).

Accordingly, let, for example, each of two vectors be expressed as three space coordinates, and apply the formula for the cross product, resulting in three coordinates, which represent a third vector. If we rewrite the two vectors in rotated coordinates, and apply the formula for the cross product again, then the result is the original cross product in terms of rotated coordinates.

Also, let, for example, a vector field be expressed as three space coordinate functions of three variables, and apply the formula for the curl based on these functions, resulting in three additional functions, which represent a second vector field. If we rewrite the original vector field in terms of rotated position coordinates and correspondingly rotated coordinates for the vector function values, and apply the formula for the curl based on these functions, then the result is the rewritten version of the original curl: also in terms of rotated position coordinates and correspondingly rotated coordinates for the vector function values.

The same applies for dot product, gradient, divergence, vector addition and scalar multiplication. For these, also reflection in a plane can be applied. The scalars involved should not be transformed (e.g. in the case of a rotation by 180°, the scalar should not be multiplied by -1). Thus even in 1D we have to distinguish scalars and vectors: 2 × 3 = 6 can be interpreted as a scalar multiplication or a dot product, but not as a product of two vectors. Similarly differentiation in 1D can be interpreted as a gradient or a divergence: one of the two functions is scalar and one a vector, and the argument is a vector, ensuring invariance under inversion of the vectors without changing the scalars.

Since rotation of the three Cartesian coordinate axes changes the formulas the same as an inverse rotation of the field itself, we can also conclude:

• if the same rotation is applied to two vectors, then the cross product is correspondingly rotated, but the dot product remains the same
• rotation of a scalar field results in a correspondingly rotated vector field for the gradient
• rotation of a vector field results in a correspondingly rotated scalar field for the divergence and a correspondingly rotated vector field for the curl

where rotation of a scalar field involves only rotation of the position vectors, while rotation of a vector field involves also a corresponding rotation of the vector field values. Note that the concept of corresponding rotations applies even if different coordinate systems are used for field values and position vectors, so that e.g. for one we multiply by an orthogonal matrix and for the other we add an angle to an angle coordinate.

In order to use the usual formulas, e.g. to compute mechanical work, the x-axis of forces should be in the same direction as the x-axis of position, etc. When, as described above, coordinate rotations of position are accompanied by corresponding coordinate rotations of forces, this property is preserved. On the other hand, the origin of forces is simply at the zero force (no force), while the origin of position can be chosen as desired. For example, work depends on displacement, which is the difference of positions and therefore does not depend on the origin.

Position and function value of a vector field are often, but not necessarily, expressed in similar coordinate systems. For example gravitational field strength due to a particular point mass may be gr = − 9.8(r / r0) − 2m / s2, with both the function value and the position vector in spherical coordinates. For the position vector the origin is chosen here at the center of the point mass; for the field strength the origin is simply at "zero field strength" anyway. How the other two coordinates are chosen does not matter in this case, because the field does not depend on them, and the field has no components in their directions.

More generally, a vector is a tensor of contravariant rank one. In differential geometry, the term vector usually refers to quantities that are closely related to tangent spaces of a differentiable manifold (assumed to be three-dimensional and equipped with a positive definite Riemannian metric). (A four-vector is a related concept when dealing with a 4 dimensional spacetime manifold in relativity.)

Examples of vectors include displacement, velocity, electric field, momentum, force, and acceleration.

Vectors can be contrasted with scalar quantities such as distance, speed, energy, time, temperature, charge, power, work, and mass, which have magnitude, but no direction (they are invariant under coordinate rotations). The magnitude of any vector is a scalar.

A related concept is that of a pseudovector (or axial vector). This is a quantity that transforms like a vector under proper rotations, but gains an additional sign flip under improper rotations. Examples of pseudovectors include magnetic field, torque, and angular momentum. (This distinction between vectors and pseudovectors is often ignored, but it becomes important in studying symmetry properties.) To distinguish from pseudo/axial vectors, an ordinary vector is sometimes called a polar vector. See also parity (physics).

Sometimes, one speaks informally of bound or fixed vectors, which are vectors additionally characterized by a "base point". Most often, this term is used for position vectors (relative to an origin point). More generally, however, the physical interpretation of a particular vector can be parameterized by any number of quantities.

### Examples in one dimension

A force may be "15N to the right", with coordinate 15N if the basis vector is to the right, and −15N if the basis vector is to the left. The magnitude of the vector is 15N in both cases. A displacement may be "4m to the right", with coordinate 4m if the basis vector is to the right, and −4m if the basis vector is to the left. The magnitude of the vector is 4m in both cases. The work done by the force in the case of this displacement is 60J in both cases.

The force and displacement are vectors, the magnitudes are scalars, and the coordinates are neither.

### Generalizations

In mathematics, a vector is any element of a vector space over some field. The spatial vectors of this article are a very special case of this general definition (they are not simply any element of Rd in d dimensions), which includes a variety of mathematical objects (algebras, the set of all functions from a given domain to a given linear range, and linear transformations). Note that under this definition, a tensor is a special vector!

## Representation of a vector

Symbols standing for vectors are usually printed in boldface as a; this is also the convention adopted in this encyclopedia. Other conventions include $\vec{a}$ or a, especially in handwriting. Alternately, some use a tilde (~) placed under the vector. The length or magnitude or norm of the vector a is denoted by |a|.

Vectors are usually shown in graphs or other diagrams as arrows, as illustrated below:

File:Vecab.png

Here the point A is called the tail, base, start, or origin; point B is called the head, tip, endpoint, or destination. The length of the arrow represents the vector's magnitude, while the direction in which the arrow points represents the vector's direction.

If a vector is itself spatial, the length of the arrow depends on a dimensionless scale. If it represents e.g. a force, the "scale" is of physical dimension length/force. Thus there is typically consistency in scale among quantities of the same dimension, but otherwise scale ratios may vary; for example, if "1 newton" and "5 m" are both represented with an arrow of 2cm, the scales are 1:250 and 1m:50N respectively. Equal length of vectors of different dimension has no particular significance unless there is some proportionality constant inherent in the system that the diagram represents. Also length of a unit vector (of dimension length, not length/force, etc.) has no coordinate-system-invariant significance.

In the figure above, the arrow can also be written as $\overrightarrow{AB}$ or AB

In order to calculate with vectors, the graphical representation is too cumbersome. Vectors in a n-dimensional Euclidean space can be represented as a linear combination of n mutually perpendicular unit vectors. In this article, we will consider R3 as an example. In R3, we usually denote the unit vectors parallel to the x-, y- and z-axes by i, j and k respectively. Any vector a in R3 can be written as a = a1i + a2j + a3k with real numbers a1, a2 and a3 which are uniquely determined by a. Sometimes a is then also written as a 3-by-1 or 1-by-3 matrix:

${a} = \begin{bmatrix} a_1\\ a_2\\ a_3\\ \end{bmatrix}$
${a} = \begin{pmatrix} a_1 & a_2 & a_3 \\ \end{pmatrix}$

even though this notation suppresses the dependence of the coordinates a1, a2 and a3 on the specific choice of coordinate system i, j and k.

## Length of a vector

The length of the vector a = a1i + a2j + a3k can be computed with the Euclidian norm

$\left\|\mathbf{a}\right\|=\sqrt{a_1^2+a_2^2+a_3^2}$

which is a consequence of the Pythagorean theorem.

## Vector equality

Two vectors are said to be equal if they have the same magnitude and direction. However if we are talking about bound vector, then two bound vectors are equal if they have the same base point and end point.

For example, the vector i + 2j + 3k with base point (1,0,0) and the vector i+2j+3k with base point (0,1,0) are different bound vectors, but the same (unbounded) vector.

## Vector addition and subtraction

Let a=a1i + a2j + a3k and b=b1i + b2j + b3k.

The sum of a and b is:

$\mathbf{a}+\mathbf{b} =(a_1+b_1)\mathbf{i} +(a_2+b_2)\mathbf{j} +(a_3+b_3)\mathbf{k}$

The addition may be represented graphically by placing the start of the arrow b at the tip of the arrow a, and then drawing an arrow from the start of a to the tip of b. The new arrow drawn represents the vector a + b, as illustrated below:

This addition method is sometimes called the parallelogram rule because a and b form the sides of a parallelogram and a + b is one of the diagonals. If a and b are bound vectors, then the addition is only defined if a and b have the same base point, which will then also be the base point of a + b. One can check geometrically that a + b = b + a and (a + b) + c = a + (b + c).

The difference of a and b is:

$\mathbf{a}-\mathbf{b} =(a_1-b_1)\mathbf{i} +(a_2-b_2)\mathbf{j} +(a_3-b_3)\mathbf{k}$

Subtraction of two vectors can be geometrically defined as follows: to subtract b from a, place the ends of a and b at the same point, and then draw an arrow from the tip of b to the tip of a. That arrow represents the vector a − b, as illustrated below:

If a and b are bound vectors, then the subtraction is only defined if they share the same base point which will then also become the base point of their difference. This operation deserves the name "subtraction" because (a − b) + b = a.

In physics, vectors of different physical dimension may occur in the same diagram. However, adding or subtracting them (graphically or otherwise) is meaningless.

## Scalar multiplication

A vector may also be multiplied by a real number r. In mathematics numbers are often called scalars to distinguish them from vectors, and this operation is therefore called scalar multiplication. The resulting vector is:

$r\mathbf{a}=(ra_1)\mathbf{i} +(ra_2)\mathbf{j} +(ra_3)\mathbf{k}$

The length of ra is |r||a|. If the scalar is negative, it also changes the direction of the vector by 180o. Two examples (r = -1 and r = 2) are given below:

Here it is important to check that the scalar multiplication is compatible with vector addition in the following sense: r(a + b) = ra + rb for all vectors a and b and all scalars r. One can also show that a - b = a + (-1)b.

The set of all geometrical vectors, together with the operations of vector addition and scalar multiplication, satisfies all the axioms of a vector space. Similarly, the set of all bound vectors with a common base point forms a vector space. This is where the term "vector space" originated.

In physics, scalars also have a unit. The scale of acceleration in the diagram is e.g. 2 m/s² : cm, and that of force 5 N : cm. Thus a scale ratio of 2.5 kg : 1 is used for mass. Similarly, if displacement has a scale of 1:1000 and velocity of 0.2 cm : 1 m/s, or equivalently, 2 ms : 1, a scale ratio of 0.5 : s is used for time.

## Unit vector

Main article: Unit vector

A unit vector is any vector with a length of one. If you have a vector of arbitrary length, you can use it to create a unit vector. This is known as normalizing a vector.

To normalize a vector a = [a1, a2, a3], scale the vector by the inverse of its length ||a||. That is:

$\mathbf{\hat{a}}=\frac{\mathbf{a}}{\left\|\mathbf{a}\right\|}=\frac{a_1}{\left\|\mathbf{a}\right\|}\mathbf{\hat{i}}+\frac{a_2}{\left\|\mathbf{a}\right\|}\mathbf{\hat{j}}+\frac{a_3}{\left\|\mathbf{a}\right\|}\mathbf{\hat{k}}$

## Dot product

Main article: Dot product

The dot product of two vectors a and b (sometimes called inner product, or, since its result is a scalar, the scalar product) is denoted by a·b and is defined as:

$\mathbf{a}\cdot\mathbf{b} =\left\|\mathbf{a}\right\|\left\|\mathbf{b}\right\|\cos(\theta)$

where ||a|| and ||b|| denote the norm (or length) of a and b, and θ is the measure of the angle between a and b (see trigonometric function for an explanation of cosine). Geometrically, this means that a and b are drawn with a common start point and then the length of a is multiplied with the length of that component of b that points in the same direction as a. This operation is often useful in physics; for instance, work is the dot product of force and displacement.

## Cross product

The cross product (also vector product or outer product) differs from the dot product primarily in that the result of a cross product of two vectors is a vector. While everything that was said above can be generalized in a straightforward manner to more than three dimensions, the cross product is only meaningful in three dimensions (although a related product exists in seven dimensions - see below). The cross product, denoted a×b, is a vector perpendicular to both a and b and is defined as:

$\mathbf{a}\times\mathbf{b} =\left\|\mathbf{a}\right\|\left\|\mathbf{b}\right\|\sin(\theta)\,\mathbf{n}$

where θ is the measure of the angle between a and b, and n is a unit vector perpendicular to both a and b. The problem with this definition is that there are two unit vectors perpendicular to both b and a. Which vector is the correct one depends upon the orientation of the vector space, i.e. on the handedness of the coordinate system. The coordinate system i, j, k is called right handed, if the three vectors are situated like the thumb, index finger and middle finger (pointing straight up from your palm) of your right hand. Graphically the cross product can be represented by this figure

File:Crossproduct.png

In such a system, a×b is defined so that a, b and a×b also becomes a right handed system. If i, j, k is left-handed, then a, b and a×b is defined to be left-handed. Because the cross product depends on the choice of coordinate systems, its result is referred to as a pseudovector. Fortunately, in nature cross products tend to come in pairs, so that the "handedness" of the coordinate system is undone by a second cross product.

The length of a×b can be interpreted as the area of the parallelogram having a and b as sides.

## Scalar triple product

The scalar triple product (also called the box product or mixed triple product) isn't really a new operator, but a way of applying the other two multiplication operators to three vectors. The scalar triple product is denoted by (a b c) and defined as:

$(\mathbf{a}\ \mathbf{b}\ \mathbf{c}) =\mathbf{a}\cdot(\mathbf{b}\times\mathbf{c})$

It has three primary uses. First, the absolute value of the box product is the volume of the parallelepiped which has edges that are defined by the three vectors. Second, the scalar triple product is zero if and only if the three vectors are linearly dependent, which can be easily proved by considering that in order for the three vectors to not make a volume, they must all lie in the same plane. Third, the box product is positive if and only if the three vectors a, b and c are oriented like the coordinate system i, j and k.

In coordinates, if the three vectors are thought of as rows, the scalar triple product is simply the determinant of the 3-by-3 matrix having the three vectors as rows. The scalar triple product is linear in all three entries and anti-symmetric in the following sense:

$(\mathbf{a}\ \mathbf{b}\ \mathbf{c})$  $=(\mathbf{c}\ \mathbf{a}\ \mathbf{b})$
$=(\mathbf{b}\ \mathbf{c}\ \mathbf{a})$
$=-(\mathbf{a}\ \mathbf{c}\ \mathbf{b})$
$=-(\mathbf{b}\ \mathbf{a}\ \mathbf{c})$
$=-(\mathbf{c}\ \mathbf{b}\ \mathbf{a})$

Technically, the scalar triple product is not a scalar, it is a pseudoscalar: under a coordinate inversion (x goes to −x), it flips sign.

## Vectors as directional derivatives

A vector may also be defined as a directional derivative: consider a function f(xα) and a curve xα(σ). Then the directional derivative of f is a scalar defined as

$\frac{df}{d\sigma} = \frac{dx^\alpha}{d\sigma}\frac{\partial f}{\partial x^\alpha}.$

where the index α is summed over the appropriate number of dimensions (e.g. from 1 to 3 in 3-dimensional Euclidian space, from 0 to 3 in 4-dimensional spacetime, etc.). Then consider a vector tangent to xα(σ):

$t^\alpha = \frac{dx^\alpha}{d\sigma}.$

We can rewrite the directional derivative in differential form (without a given function f) as

$\frac{d}{d\sigma} = t^\alpha\frac{\partial}{\partial x^\alpha}.$

Therefore any directional derivative can be identified with a corresponding vector, and any vector can be identified with a corresponding directional derivative. We can therefore define a vector precisely:

$\mathbf{a} \equiv a^\alpha \frac{\partial}{\partial x^\alpha}.$

## See also

• Four-vector, the specialization to space-time in relativity
• Pseudovector
• Vector calculus
• Vector bundle
• Unit vector
• Null vector
• Normal vector

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