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teknodude
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I was copying my friends notes and had a hard time understanding one of the examples he had written down from lecture. See the attachment for a the picture of the example. This example looks like a projection of two vectors to me, but I'm not sure.
[tex] u'=\frac{4i+2j}{\sqrt{20}} [/tex] u' = unit vector u in the direction of force
[tex] v'=\frac{3i+4j}{5} [/tex] v' = unit vector v
[tex] Fy' = 7kN (\frac{4i+2j}{\sqrt{20}})\cdot (\frac{3i+4j}{5})
= 7kN (\frac{4}{\sqrt{20}} * \frac{3}{5} + \frac{2}{\sqrt{20}} * \frac{4}{5}) [/tex]
The unit vectors came from the drawing and are in the direction of the two vectors. The thing i don't get is why are 2 unit vectors being dotted, then multiplied by the magnitude 7 kN?
http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/5998/untitled3bz.png
**EDIT: forgot to include in the image a unit vector symbol in the pic for F, so F = 7 kN e' (e' is a unit vector)
[tex] u'=\frac{4i+2j}{\sqrt{20}} [/tex] u' = unit vector u in the direction of force
[tex] v'=\frac{3i+4j}{5} [/tex] v' = unit vector v
[tex] Fy' = 7kN (\frac{4i+2j}{\sqrt{20}})\cdot (\frac{3i+4j}{5})
= 7kN (\frac{4}{\sqrt{20}} * \frac{3}{5} + \frac{2}{\sqrt{20}} * \frac{4}{5}) [/tex]
The unit vectors came from the drawing and are in the direction of the two vectors. The thing i don't get is why are 2 unit vectors being dotted, then multiplied by the magnitude 7 kN?
http://img394.imageshack.us/img394/5998/untitled3bz.png
**EDIT: forgot to include in the image a unit vector symbol in the pic for F, so F = 7 kN e' (e' is a unit vector)
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