What we will study in the analytic geometry part are
transformations of the plane which preserve collinearity, that is,
which map lines to lines: the affine transformations.
We introduce the formalism of vectors. These are arrows ~v in the
plane (the Cartesian plane), so they are determined by:
a line (that containing the arrow)
a point on the line (the source of the arrow)
an orientation (the direction pointed by the tip of the arrow)
a length v (or magnitude, modulus, norm); if the length is
zero, we say ~v is a zero vector ~0
We say that two vectors with same direction (lying on parallel lines
and having the same orientation) and equal length are equivalent
(intuitively, we can move one over the other by means of a
translation).
If we consider vectors up to equivalence, then we can consider
them all having source at the same point
We can define operations on vectors: (1) addition and (2)
multiplication by a scalar (a real number).
For addition, we use the parallelogram rule
u~ + ~v
~v
u~
If r is a real number, we define r ~v to be the vector with same line
as ~v , length |r |v , and same orientation as ~v if r > 0, opposite if
r < 0. If r = 0, then r ~v = ~0. In the figure below we see ~v , 2~v and
−2~v :
−2~v ~v 2~v
We call −~v the opposite of ~v . Notice that ~0 is neutral element for
the addition of vectors (that is, it plays the same role of the
number 0 for the addition of numbers), and ~v + (−~v ) = ~0.
Suppose all the vectors have source in the origin of the Cartesian
plane R2 = R × R = {(x, y ) | x, y ∈ R}. Then we can identify a
vector with the coordinates of its tip, and conversely, any point in
the plane is the tip of just one vector with source the origin.
y
(2,1)
~v
x
So we can identify the set of all vectors with source the origin with
the Cartesian plane itself: ~v = (v1 , v2 ).
What’s more is that addition of vectors and multiplication of a
vector by a scalar match with the corresponding operation in R2 :
if u~ = (u1 , u2 ) and ~v = (v1 , v2 ), then
u~ + ~v = (u1 + v1 , u2 + v2 )
r u~ = (ru1 , ru2 ).
So, we can use the algebra we know for numbers to deal with
vectors!
GEOMETRY ! ALGEBRA
We need now a notion of scalar product to talk about distances
and angles.
Definition
A scalar product (or inner product or dot product) on vectors (that
is, on R2 ) is a map (function)
R2 × R2 → R
u , ~v ) 7→ u~ · ~v
(~
such that
u~ · u~ ≥ 0 and u~ · u~ = 0 if and only if u~ = ~0
u~ · ~v = ~v · u~
(u~1 + u~2 ) · ~v = u~1 · ~v + u~2 · ~v
(r u~) · ~v = r (~
u · ~v )
Example
if u~ = (u1 , u2 ) and ~v = (v1 , v2 ), then
u~ · ~v = u1 v1 + u2 v2
is a scalar product (standard scalar product).
Definition
Given a scalar product, two vectors u~ and ~v are called orthogonal if
u~ · ~v = 0.
So, with respect to the standard scalar product defined above, the
vectors (1, 1) and (1, −1) are orthogonal, as
(1, 1) · (1, −1) = 1 × 1 + 1 × (−1) = 0. Draw them into the
Cartesian plane, and you’ll see that it makes sense.
y
(1,1)
(1,-1)
Definition
The norm |~v | of a vector ~v associated with a dot product is
√
|~v | = ~v · ~v
So,
q the norm associated with the standard scalar product is
v12 + v22 , where ~v = (v1 , v2 ).
√ √
For example, in this case, if ~v = (1, 1), then |~v | = 1 + 1 = 2.
In fact, the norm of a vector with respect to the standard scalar
product is its length.
The norm has the following properties:
Proposition
|~v | ≥ 0
|~v | = 0 if and only if ~v = ~0
|r ~v | = |r ||~v |, for every r ∈ R.
By means of a scalar product we can define measure of angles and
distances.
The angle θ between two nonzero vectors u~ and ~v is defined by
u~ · ~v
cos θ = .
|~u ||~v |
More in next notes and video.
