Statics › Section B · Forces and other vectors › Topic B.2
2D vectors and components
A force drawn at an angle is hard to add, balance or compare. Splitting it into perpendicular components turns every vector calculation in a plane into ordinary arithmetic, and converting back gives the magnitude and direction an engineer needs to report.
In this topic
- Why perpendicular axes
- Rectangular form
- Polar form
- Polar to rectangular
- Worked example: resolving a force
- Rectangular to polar
- Worked example: a point in the second quadrant
- Angles from other references
- Worked example: tilted axes on a ramp
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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