Unit vector

A unit vector is any vector that is one unit in length. Unit vectors are often notated the same way as normal vectors, but with a mark called a circumflex over the letter (e.g. is the unit vector of .)^[1][2]

To make a vector into a unit vector, one just needs to divide it by its length: .^[3] The resulting unit vector will be in the same direction as the original vector.^[4]

Three common unit vectors are , and , referring to the three-dimensional unit vectors for the x-, y- and z-axes, respectively. These vectors are called the standard basis vectors of a 3-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system. They are commonly just notated as i, j and k.

They can be written as follows:

For the -th standard basis vector of a vector space, the symbol (or ) may be used.^[4] This refers to the vector with 1 in the -th component, and 0 elsewhere.

• Euclidean vector

1. ↑ "Comprehensive List of Algebra Symbols". Math Vault. 2020-03-25. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
2. ↑ "Unit Vector". www.mathsisfun.com. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
3. ↑ Weisstein, Eric W. "Unit Vector". mathworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved 2020-08-19.
4. 1 2 "Unit Vectors | Brilliant Math & Science Wiki". brilliant.org. Retrieved 2020-08-19.

This short article about mathematics can be made longer. You can help Wikipedia by adding to it.