Are Angular Quantities Vectors?

We can describe the position, velocity, and acceleration of a single particle by means of vectors. If the particle is confined to a straight line, however, we do not really need vector notation. Such a particle has only two directions available to it, and we can indicate these directions with plus and minus signs.

In the same way, a rigid body rotating about a fixed axis can rotate only clockwise or counterclockwise as seen along the axis, and again we can select between the two directions by means of plus and minus signs. The question arises: “Can we treat the angular displacement, velocity, and acceleration of a rotating body as vectors?” The answer is a qualified “yes” (see the caution below, in connection with angular displacements).

Consider the angular velocity. Figure 10-6a shows a vinyl record rotating on a turntable. The record has a constant angular speed ω (=  rev/min) in the clockwise direction. We can represent its angular velocity as a vector  pointing along the axis of rotation, as in Fig. 10-6b. Here’s how: We choose the length of this vector according to some convenient scale, for example, with 1 cm corresponding to 10 rev/min. Then we establish a direction for the vector  by using a right-hand rule, as Fig. 10-6c shows: Curl your right hand about the rotating record, your fingers pointing in the direction of rotation. Your extended thumb will then point in the direction of the angular velocity vector. If the record were to rotate in the opposite sense, the right-hand rule would tell you that the angular velocity vector then points in the opposite direction.

It is not easy to get used to representing angular quantities as vectors. We instinctively expect that something should be moving along the direction of a vector. That is not the case here. Instead, something (the rigid body) is rotating around the direction of the vector. In the world of pure rotation, a vector defines an axis of rotation, not a direction in which something moves. Nonetheless, the vector also defines the motion. Furthermore, it obeys all the rules for vector manipulation discussed in Chapter 3. The angular acceleration  is another vector, and it too obeys those rules.

In this chapter we consider only rotations that are about a fixed axis. For such situations, we need not consider vectors—we can represent angular velocity with ω and angular acceleration with α, and we can indicate direction with an implied plus sign for counterclockwise or an explicit minus sign for clockwise.

Now for the caution: Angular displacements (unless they are very small) cannot be treated as vectors. Why not? We can certainly give them both magnitude and direction, as we did for the angular velocity vector in Fig. 10-6. However, to be represented as a vector, a quantity must also obey the rules of vector addition, one of which says that if you add two vectors, the order in which you add them does not matter. Angular displacements fail this test.

Figure 10-7 gives an example. An initially horizontal book is given two 90° angular displacements, first in the order of Fig. 10-7a and then in the order of Fig. 10-7b. Although the two angular displacements are identical, their order is not, and the book ends up with different orientations. Thus, the addition of the two angular displacements depends on their order and they cannot be vectors.