🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4g8b5i$irm@dfw.nkn.net>, TheAnalyst@Nfo.Org writes:

> >	In math, a vector is any ordered pair, triple, n-tuple.

Semi-correct. A vector is an element of an algebraic structure (i.e. a
set and certain operations defined on its elements), but this is a
minor point.

> 	VECTOR: Quantity having both magnitude (size) and direction.

This is *one* out of many possible interpretations. Neither is every
vector one that carries a geometric meaning (which would allow for
terms like direction to be applied), nor is every quantity with "both
magnitude and direction" a vector - it could as well be expressed by a
pair of length and angle (describing the quantity in polar coordi-
nates).

Admittedly, the distinction is fuzzy, because describing geometric
problems is the most important application for vector math, and vector
math is used most times to deal with geometric problems, but if you
want to nit-pick, do it correctly. (Typically of someone apparenty
involved with physics not do get his mathematics straight.)

Lit.ref.: Kowalsky, "Lineare Algebra", 9th Edition, de Gruyter, 1979

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