Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In the natural sciences, a vector quantity (also known as a vector physical quantity, physical vector, or simply vector) is a vector-valued physical quantity. [9] [10] It is typically formulated as the product of a unit of measurement and a vector numerical value (), often a Euclidean vector with magnitude and direction.
In 1835 Giusto Bellavitis introduced the idea of equipollent directed line segments which resulted in the concept of a vector as an equivalence class of such segments.. The term vector was coined by W. R. Hamilton around 1843, as he revealed quaternions, a system which uses vectors and scalars to span a four-dimensional space.
Since orthogonal transformations are actually rotations and reflections, the invariance conditions mean that vectors of a central field are always directed towards, or away from, 0; this is an alternate (and simpler) definition. A central field is always a gradient field, since defining it on one semiaxis and integrating gives an antigradient.
In mathematics, a geometric algebra (also known as a Clifford algebra) is an algebra that can represent and manipulate geometrical objects such as vectors.Geometric algebra is built out of two fundamental operations, addition and the geometric product.
There are two lists of mathematical identities related to vectors: Vector algebra relations — regarding operations on individual vectors such as dot product, cross product, etc. Vector calculus identities — regarding operations on vector fields such as divergence, gradient, curl, etc.
The following are important identities in vector algebra.Identities that only involve the magnitude of a vector ‖ ‖ and the dot product (scalar product) of two vectors A·B, apply to vectors in any dimension, while identities that use the cross product (vector product) A×B only apply in three dimensions, since the cross product is only defined there.
A graph of the vector-valued function r(z) = 2 cos z, 4 sin z, z indicating a range of solutions and the vector when evaluated near z = 19.5. A common example of a vector-valued function is one that depends on a single real parameter t, often representing time, producing a vector v(t) as the result.
It is formally defined as a directed line segment, or arrow, in a Euclidean space. [11] In pure mathematics, a vector is defined more generally as any element of a vector space. In this context, vectors are abstract entities which may or may not be characterized by a magnitude and a direction.