Statics › Section B · Forces and other vectors › Topic B.4
Unit vectors and forces along a line
In most 3D problems you know where a cable runs but not the angles it makes with the axes. Unit vectors turn the coordinates of two points into a direction, and multiplying that direction by the tension gives the force components in one clean step.
In this topic
- Direction without size
- The Cartesian unit vectors
- Building and splitting a vector
- Worked example: a force along a line in a plane
- Position vectors between two points
- A force along a line in four steps
- Worked example: a guy cable on a pole
- Worked example: an awkward geometry
- Unit vectors and direction cosines
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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