Abstract
In this chapter, preliminary remarks are made on vectors and tensors. The axioms of a vector space and the norm of a vector are introduced, the role of vectors for classical physics and for Special Relativity is discussed. The scope of the book as well as a brief overview of the history and literature devoted to vectors and tensors are presented. Before tensors and their properties are introduced here, it is appropriate to discuss the question: what is a vector? As we shall see, mathematicians and physicists give somewhat different answers.
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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
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Hess, S. (2015). Introduction. In: Tensors for Physics. Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12787-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12787-3_1
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Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-12786-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-12787-3
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