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Scalar multiplication of a vector by a factor of 3 stretches the vector out. The scalar multiplications −a and 2a of a vector a. In mathematics, scalar multiplication is one of the basic operations defining a vector space in linear algebra [1] [2] [3] (or more generally, a module in abstract algebra [4] [5]).
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. For a quaternion q = a + bi + cj + dk, Hamilton used two projections: S q = a, for the scalar part of q, and V q = bi + cj + dk, the vector part.
Vectors and scalars can be added. When a vector is added to a scalar, a completely different entity, a quaternion is created. A vector plus a scalar is always a quaternion even if the scalar is zero. If the scalar added to the vector is zero then the new quaternion produced is called a right quaternion. It has an angle characteristic of 90 degrees.
Then F m×n is a vector space over F. Vector addition is just matrix addition and scalar multiplication is defined in the obvious way (by multiplying each entry by the same scalar). The zero vector is just the zero matrix. The dimension of F m×n is mn. One possible choice of basis is the matrices with a single entry equal to 1 and all other ...
For a tensor field of order k > 1, the tensor field of order k is defined by the recursive relation = where is an arbitrary constant vector. A tensor field of order greater than one may be decomposed into a sum of outer products, and then the following identity may be used: = ().
In mathematics, vector multiplication may refer to one of several operations between two (or more) vectors. It may concern any of the following articles: Dot product – also known as the "scalar product", a binary operation that takes two vectors and returns a scalar quantity. The dot product of two vectors can be defined as the product of the ...
The name "dot product" is derived from the dot operator " · " that is often used to designate this operation; [1] the alternative name "scalar product" emphasizes that the result is a scalar, rather than a vector (as with the vector product in three-dimensional space).
If a vector field F with zero divergence is defined on a ball in R 3, then there exists some vector field G on the ball with F = curl G. For regions in R 3 more topologically complicated than this, the latter statement might be false (see Poincaré lemma). The degree of failure of the truth of the statement, measured by the homology of the ...