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In mathematics and physics, a vector space (also called a linear space) is a set whose elements, often called vectors, can be added together and multiplied ("scaled") by numbers called scalars. The operations of vector addition and scalar multiplication must satisfy certain requirements, called vector axioms .
For example, the complex numbers C form a two-dimensional vector space over the real numbers R. Likewise, the real numbers R form a vector space over the rational numbers Q which has (uncountably) infinite dimension, if a Hamel basis exists. [b] If V is a vector space over F it may also be regarded as vector space over K. The dimensions are ...
[13] [14] [12] A simpler example of a bound vector is the translation vector from an initial point to an end point; in this case, the bound vector is an ordered pair of points in the same position space, with all coordinates having the same quantity dimension and unit (length an meters).
A scalar in physics and other areas of science is also a scalar in mathematics, as an element of a mathematical field used to define a vector space.For example, the magnitude (or length) of an electric field vector is calculated as the square root of its absolute square (the inner product of the electric field with itself); so, the inner product's result is an element of the mathematical field ...
One of the most familiar examples of a Hilbert space is the Euclidean vector space consisting of three-dimensional vectors, denoted by R 3, and equipped with the dot product. The dot product takes two vectors x and y , and produces a real number x ⋅ y .
A surface wind map, [4] assigning an arrow to each point on a map that describes the wind speed and direction at that point, is an example of a vector field, i.e. a 1-dimensional (rank-1) tensor field. Field theories, mathematical descriptions of how field values change in space and time, are ubiquitous in physics.
The main example is the case that the real vector space V is a hermitian vector space (V, h), i.e., V is equipped with a complex structure J that is an orthogonal transformation with respect to the inner product g on V. Then splits in the ±i eigenspaces of J.
In physics and geometry, there are two closely related vector spaces, usually three-dimensional but in general of any finite dimension. Position space (also real space or coordinate space) is the set of all position vectors r in Euclidean space, and has dimensions of length; a position vector defines a point in space.