Q.Find a vector in the direction of vector which has magnitude 8 units.
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →The key idea is to scale the given vector to a unit vector (direction) and then multiply by the desired magnitude. The required vector is .
Concept and Intuition: Unit Vector Scaling
A vector has two independent properties: direction and magnitude. If you want a vector that points exactly the same way as a given vector but has a different length, you first strip away the original length to get a pure direction (a unit vector), then stretch that direction to the new length.
Mathematically, the unit vector in the direction of is . This vector has magnitude 1 and points exactly along . To get a vector of magnitude in that same direction, you simply multiply: .
Here, and .
Step-by-Step Solution
1. Find the magnitude of the given vector
The magnitude of is:
The magnitude formula works for any 3D vector. Don't forget to square the negative sign — , not .
2. Construct the unit vector in the same direction
The unit vector is obtained by dividing each component of by its magnitude:
This vector has magnitude exactly 1. You can verify:
3. Scale the unit vector to the desired magnitude
We want magnitude 8, so multiply by 8:
Distribute the 8: …
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