Hmmm... the notation |x| is useful.
Also I just remembered, and it is worth noting, that a displacement vector
has an associated scalar distance.
Summarising in a table:
Vector Scalar
symbol name symbol name
d displacement |d| distance
v velocity |v| speed
a acceleration |a| ?!
Harry
Stephen A. Lawrence wrote:
>
>
> leaking pen wrote:
>
>> good point. i keep forgeting, velocity has a vector in it. in which
>> case, i dont know that its possible to have a scalar meaning for
>> acceleration. by definition its the change of a vector. about the
>> only way i can think of would be to call it the change in speed, and
>> even thats innacurate.
>>
>>
> v = (v_x, v_y, v_z)
>
> or, using coordinate numbers instead of axis names,
>
> v = (v_0, v_1, v_2)
>
> and the magnitude of that is:
>
> speed = |v| = sqrt(v*v) = sqrt(sum((v_i)^2)), sum from 0 to 2
>
> Change in velocity per time:
>
> a = dv/dt = (a_0, a_1, a_2) = (dv_0/dt, dv_1/dt, dv_2/dt)
>
> And the magnitude of that is:
>
> |a| = sqrt(a*a) = sqrt(sum((a_i)^2)), sum from 0 to 2
>
> But I don't know any nice names for |a|.
>
