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In linear algebra, a coordinate vector is a representation of a vector as an ordered list of numbers (a tuple) that describes the vector in terms of a particular ordered basis. [1] An easy example may be a position such as (5, 2, 1) in a 3-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system with the basis as the axes of this system.
Vectors are defined in cylindrical coordinates by (ρ, φ, z), where ρ is the length of the vector projected onto the xy-plane, φ is the angle between the projection of the vector onto the xy-plane (i.e. ρ) and the positive x-axis (0 ≤ φ < 2π), z is the regular z-coordinate. (ρ, φ, z) is given in Cartesian coordinates by:
Vectors can also be expressed in terms of an arbitrary basis, including the unit vectors of a cylindrical coordinate system (^, ^, ^) or spherical coordinate system (^, ^, ^). The latter two choices are more convenient for solving problems which possess cylindrical or spherical symmetry, respectively.
In mathematics, analytic geometry, also known as coordinate geometry or Cartesian geometry, is the study of geometry using a coordinate system. This contrasts with synthetic geometry . Analytic geometry is used in physics and engineering , and also in aviation , rocketry , space science , and spaceflight .
In mathematics, the dot product or scalar product [note 1] is an algebraic operation that takes two equal-length sequences of numbers (usually coordinate vectors), and returns a single number. In Euclidean geometry, the dot product of the Cartesian coordinates of two vectors is widely used.
Historically, vectors were introduced in geometry and physics (typically in mechanics) for quantities that have both a magnitude and a direction, such as displacements, forces and velocity. Such quantities are represented by geometric vectors in the same way as distances , masses and time are represented by real numbers .
These one to one correspondences between vectors, points and coordinate vectors explain the names of coordinate space and coordinate vector. It allows using geometric terms and methods for studying real coordinate spaces, and, conversely, to use methods of calculus in geometry.
Given a subset S of R n, a vector field is represented by a vector-valued function V: S → R n in standard Cartesian coordinates (x 1, …, x n).If each component of V is continuous, then V is a continuous vector field.