Message-Id: <3.0.3.32.19971211103620.006a463c@mail.walltech.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 10:36:20 -0600
To: pinhole@exploratorium.edu
From: geoff ruth <geoffr@eastside.org>
Subject: Re: Vectors
In-Reply-To: <l03102800b0b5c7423c77@[153.90.236.25]>
>>As we know that all vectors have both magnitudes and directions. Is it
>>also true that if a quantity which has magnitude and direction, is a
>>vector quantity? A. Rahbar {rahbar@alpha.nsula.edu}
>
>I once heard, I think from a mathematician, that anything that requires two
>numbers to describe it is called a vector. This is a much more general
>meaning than most physics folks are used to. Eiger
>
>
I can come up with a counterexample. Say that you want to describe the area
of something. Area = length x width, which are two numbers. Yet both length
and
width are scalars, since they involve only magnitude and not direction. So
therefore
area wouldn't be a vector. It wouldn't make sense to speak of the magnitude
and
direction of area.
Is this logic correct?
Geoff Ruth
Eastside School
2101 Pulgas Avenue
East Palo Alto, CA 94303
(650) 323-5898