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ighth<br />
dition<br />
Vector Mechanics for Engineers: Statics<br />
Rectangular Components of a Force: Unit Vectors<br />
• May resolve a force vector into perpendicular<br />
components<br />
<br />
so that<br />
<br />
the resulting parallelogram is a<br />
rectangle. F x and F y are referred to as rectangular<br />
vector components and<br />
<br />
F F x F y<br />
<br />
• Define perpendicular unit vectors i and j which are<br />
parallel to the x and y axes.<br />
• Vector components may be expressed as products of<br />
the unit vectors with the scalar magnitudes of the<br />
vector components.<br />
<br />
F F i F j<br />
x<br />
y<br />
F x and F y are referred to as the scalar components of<br />
F <br />
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.<br />
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