To progress to the later topics of static equilibrium, structures, and friction, you will need to first build a robust set of basic vector analysis skills. These skills include:
Understanding the basic terminology around vectors.
Computing vector components from the various ways that vector magnitude and direction can be defined.
Extracting vector direction in the form of a unit vector.
Adding and subtracting vectors.
Finding the parallel projections of vectors with dot projects.
Computing cross products to find the rotational tendency of forces.
This chapter will help you build this skillset. You may notice that many of the tools in this chapter are also covered in your Calculus III course. Use this overlap to your advantage to dial in your computational skills in calculus, while learning about the application of the math tools here in statics.
