RECTANGULAR CO-ORDINATE SYSTEM AND CARTESIAN COMPONENTS OF A VECTOR Let OX, OY and OZ be three mutually perpendicular lines.

Now take a right handed screw and set its screw parallel to OZ. Now rotate the screw from OX to OY through 90, then the direction in which the screw advances is taken as the positive direction of Z-axis. Similarly by setting the screw parallel to OX axis and rotating it from OY to OZ through 90 we may find the positive direction of X-axis. The set of three mutually orthogonal lines OX, OY, and OZ. With positive directions defined by right-handed screw rule, as described above, constitute what we call righthanded coordinate system. If the direction of any axis is reversed then the new set of axis constitute left handed coordinate system. Fig. (1.6). Let i, j and k be unit vector along OX,OY and OZ respectively. These unit vectors are called fundamental system of vectors. Let OP = a be a vector whose components along the coordinate axes are to be determined. Complete a rectangular parallelepiped with OP as diagonal and edges along the coordinate axes as shown in the Fig. (1.7). Vectors OA, OB and OC are the components of vector OP (= a) in the directions of i, j and k respectively. Let us denote the magnitudes of the components in the directions of i, j, k by a1, a2, a3. Then OA = a1 i, OB = a2 j, OC = a3 k
Fig. 1.7: Cartesian components of a vector Vectors 5

From the Fig. (1.7), we have a = OP = OD + DP = OA + AD + DP = a1 i + a2 j + a3 k (1.5a) Also a2 = OP2 + DP2 = OA2+ AD2+ DP2 = a1 2 + a2 2 + a3 2 (1.5b) If the vector OP makes angles a, b, g with X, Y and Z-axes respectively then the ratios are called the direction cosines of the vector a. In terms of d.c we can express the vector a as a = (a cos a)i + (a cos b)j + (a cos g)k 1.9 SCALAR PRODUCT OF TWO VECTORS The scalar product of two vectors a and b is defined to be the scalar a b cos q, where q is the angle between them. If q is acute, the scalar product is positive and if q lies between p/2 and p, the scalar product is negative. The scalar product is also denoted by a . b and is referred to as the dot product. We have a . b = ab cos q (1.7) Since the scalar product of two vector is a scalar, therefore a . b = b . a (1.8) That is, the scalar product is commutative. Self product: The scalar product of a vector with itself is called self-product. a . a = a2 Scalar product of orthogonal vectors: If a and b are orthogonal vectors then their scalar product vanishes. a . b = ab cos(p/2) = 0 Unit vectors i, j and k: From the definition of scalar product we have i . i = j . j = k . k = 1 (1.9) i . j = j . k = k. i = 0 (1.10) Dot product of two vectors in component from: Let a = a1i + a2j + a3k (1.11)

and b = b1i + b2j + b3k (1.12) Then using Eqns. (1.9) and (1.10), we obtain a . b = a1b1+ a2b2 + a3b3 (1.13) Physical significance of scalar product: If a particle undergoes a displacement d under the influence of a