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MrLobster
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How do you sqaure a vector?
Is it the magnitude of the vector times the vector?
Is it the magnitude of the vector times the vector?
chroot said:You can't "square" a vector, because there's no distinct "multiply" operation defined for vectors.
The dot product is a generalization of multiplication to vectors, and you can certain take the dot product of a vector with itself. The resulting quantity is the squared norm of the vector.
- Warren
UniPhysics90 said:would this mean just the square of each term added together?
ive tried this but then end upwith an answer different to the one given, i have a factor of sin($) missing.
Squaring a vector involves multiplying each component of the vector by itself. For example, if we have a vector (2,3), squaring it would result in (4,9).
The magnitude of a vector is calculated by taking the square root of the sum of the squares of each component. In other words, using the Pythagorean theorem: magnitude = √(x²+y²+z²).
Squaring the magnitude of a vector allows us to find the total length or size of the vector. It is also essential in many mathematical and scientific calculations, such as finding the distance between two points or determining the force of a vector.
The magnitude of a vector is the actual length or size of the vector, while the squared magnitude is the magnitude multiplied by itself. Squaring the magnitude is useful in some calculations because it eliminates the use of square roots, making the calculations simpler.
Yes, you can square a vector with negative components. The result will be a positive vector with the same direction and magnitude as the original vector. For example, if we have a vector (-2,3), squaring it would result in (4,9).