Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Vector calculus or vector analysis is a branch of mathematics concerned with the differentiation and integration of vector fields, primarily in three-dimensional Euclidean space, . [1] The term vector calculus is sometimes used as a synonym for the broader subject of multivariable calculus, which spans vector calculus as well as partial differentiation and multiple integration.
These operations and associated laws qualify Euclidean vectors as an example of the more generalized concept of vectors defined simply as elements of a vector space. Vectors play an important role in physics: the velocity and acceleration of a moving object and the forces acting on it can all be described with vectors. [7]
Geometrically, vectors are multi-dimensional quantities with magnitude and direction, often pictured as arrows. A linear transformation rotates, stretches, or shears the vectors upon which it acts. Its eigenvectors are those vectors that are only stretched, with neither rotation nor shear.
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.
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.
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.
In this article, vectors are represented in boldface to distinguish them from scalars. [nb 1] [1] A vector space over a field F is a non-empty set V together with a binary operation and a binary function that satisfy the eight axioms listed below. In this context, the elements of V are commonly called vectors, and the elements of F are called ...
A set of vectors is linearly independent if none is in the span of the others. Equivalently, a set S of vectors is linearly independent if the only way to express the zero vector as a linear combination of elements of S is to take zero for every coefficient a i. A set of vectors that spans a vector space is called a spanning set or generating set.