ABSTRACT
Vectors involve both magnitude and direction. Vectors are represented in terms of orthogonal reference components of unit magnitudes along the primary axes together with a set of scaling factors. This chapter introduces the concept of vectors and their mathematical representations in 2D and 3D spaces. It then discusses how vectors can be added and multiplied together. Vector products can either be scalar, called a dot product, or vector, called a cross product. Using these concepts, the chapter then provides details of how vector equations of lines and planes can be derived. Next, the chapter discusses how vectors can be aligned to specific directions and finally how vector equations can be represented using homogeneous coordinates. The chapter ends with a section on how the tangent vector and the normal vector can be calculated for a curve. As before, the theoretical concepts are followed by numerical examples, MATLAB codes and graphical plots for visualization.
