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Can someone help me with a physic questions and explain to me how you did it?
Classify the following quantities as vector as scalar.
58.
a) Displacement
b) mass
c) speed
d) Time
e) Area
f) Acceleration
2 Answers
- Anonymous8 years agoFavorite Answer
a) Displacement : Vector as it has a direction and magnitude
b) mass: scalar, there is no direction to it
c) speed: scalar
d) Time, scalar,
e) Area: scalar
f) Acceleration: Vector
- Anonymous8 years ago
i couldnt figure out what that 58 means... i will help you through the rest of it...
a) Displacement is completely specified by magnitude and direction... Hence a vector
This is a good place to state that distance is a scalar...
b) Mass needs no direction for complete specification... Hence a scalar
This is a good place to point out that weight, being a force is a vector...
c) Speed is the derivative(rate of change) of distance... Distance being scalar, speed too is scalar..
This is a good place to state that the derivative of displacement, called 'velocity' is a vector...
d) Time has no direction associated with it hence a scalar
e) Area is treated as scalar or vector depending on application...
Area has an 'orientation'... the direction normal(perpendicular) to an area is specified as its direction
Area is thought of as a scalar in applications such as calculation of pressure
It is thought of as a vector while calculating flux densities
f) Acceleration is the derivative of velocity, which itself is the derivative of displacement(a vector,if you remember)
Acceleration is hence the double derivative of a vector and hence is a vector
I will state some more quantities under the headings scalar and vector... It may be helpful
SCALAR: Pressure, Energy, Electric Flux, Charge, Volume
VECTOR: Force(includes weight), Electric Field Intensity, Magnetic Induction, Current Density
Hope that helped :)
Source(s): Refer some good physics book which discusses this in detail I used H.C. Verma, Indian author...