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x x î yĵ zk̂ z
x
k̂
î ĵ y
x
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LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS
The velocity vector u is given as
dx dx dy dz
u î ĵ k̂
dt dt dt dt
The acceleration vector a is given as
du du dv dw d2 x d2 x d2y d2z
a î ĵ k̂ 2 2 î 2 ĵ 2 k̂
dt dt dt dt dt dt dt dt
The units that we will use in class are length L, time T, mass M and
temperature °. The units of a parameter are denoted in brackets. Thus
[x ] L
[u] LT 1
[a ] ? LT 2
Newton’s second law is a vectorial statement: where F denotes the
force vector and m denotes the mass (which is a scalar)
F ma 2
LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS
The dimensions of the force vector are the dimension of mass times
the dimension acceleration
[F] [Fx ] MLT2
[g] LT2
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LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS
xx xy xz
yx yy yz
zy zz
zx
The stress tensor has 9 components. What do they mean? Use the
following mnemonic device: first face, second stress
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LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS
Consider the volume element below.
z
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LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS
Consider the face below.
z
yy yz
y
yx
x
yx
yy yz yy
yz y
yx
x
Thus xi, xj and xp all refer to the same vector (x1, x2 and x3) , as the
index (subscript) always runs from 1 to 3.
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LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS
Scalar multiplication: let be a scalar and A = Ai be a vector.
Then
A Ai (Ai, A2, A3 )
is a vector.
Dot or scalar product of two vectors results in a scalar:
A B A1B1 A2B2 A3B3 scalar
In index notation, the dot product takes the form
3 3 3
A B AiBi AkBk ArBr
i1 k 1 r 1
There is no free index in the above expressions. Instead the indices are
paired (e.g. two i’s), implying summation. The result of the dot product
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is thus a scalar.
LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS
Magnitude of a vector:
2
A A A Ai Ai
1 0 0
1 if i j
ij 0 1 0
0 if i j
0 0 1
Since there are two free indices, the result is a second-order tensor, or
matrix. The Kronecker delta corresponds to the identity matrix.
î ĵ k̂ î ĵ k̂
C det A1 A 2 A 3 A1 A 2 A3
B1 B2 B3 B1 B2 B3
î ĵ k̂ î ĵ î ĵ k̂ î ĵ
A1 A 2 A 3 A1 A 2 A1 A 2 A 3 A1 A2
B1 B2 B3 B1 B2 B1 B2 B3 B1 B2
or in index notation,
uk
curl(u) ijk
x j
One free index i (the j’s and the k’s are paired) means that the result is a
vector
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LECTURE 1: SCALARS, VECTORS AND TENSORS
iju j ui
This manipulation works because the Kronecker delta ij = 0 except when
i = j, in which case it equals 1.
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