PHYS 2211 Chapter Episode 5 and 6: Episode 5 and 6
Document Summary
Episode 5 and 6 / vectors, newton"s laws / cal-tech: the mechanical universe. Certain physical quantities have both a magnitude and direction, these quantities can be represented as vectors. One has to be able to describe the position of something accurately given a specific point of view. An arrow is typically used to represent a vector. The arrows direction is the quantities direction and the length of the arrow represents the magnitude of the quantity. Displacement, velocity and acceleration are all vectors, and are writing in boldface. Scalar quantities are written in italics, notably the magnitude of a vector is actually a scalar quantity. A grid coordinate system can be used to accurately locate an object, this method uses cartesian coordinate systems in the form (x,y). Rene descartes and pierre de fermont connected geometry and algebra in the form of coordinate systems.
