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In physics, Euclidean vectors are used to represent physical quantities that have both magnitude and direction, but are not located at a specific place, in contrast to scalars, which have no direction. [7] For example, velocity, forces and acceleration are represented by vectors.
By definition, all Euclidean vectors have a magnitude (see above). However, a vector in an abstract vector space does not possess a magnitude. A vector space endowed with a norm, such as the Euclidean space, is called a normed vector space. [8] The norm of a vector v in a normed vector space can be considered to be the magnitude of v.
The first distance, usually represented as r or ρ (the Greek letter rho), is the magnitude of the projection of the vector onto the xy-plane. The angle, usually represented as θ or φ (the Greek letter phi ), is measured as the offset from the line collinear with the x -axis in the positive direction; the angle is typically reduced to lie ...
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 .
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 the natural sciences, a vector quantity (also known as a vector physical quantity, physical vector, or simply vector) is a vector-valued physical quantity. [1] [2] 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.
Integrating this cross product over the whole surface results in a vector whose magnitude measures the overall circulation of F around S, and whose direction is at right angles to this circulation. The above formula says that the curl of a vector field at a point is the infinitesimal volume density of this "circulation vector" around the point.
Maxwell's equations allow us to use a given set of initial and boundary conditions to deduce, for every point in Euclidean space, a magnitude and direction for the force experienced by a charged test particle at that point; the resulting vector field is the electric field. A gravitational field generated by any massive object is also a vector ...