Orchid XP v8 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> I still can't figure out what a "tensor" is. :-P

scalar = tensor of rank 0
vector = tensor of rank 1

For example, the stress tensor is a rank 2 tensor since you quantify stress in a
plane and thus need two indices to describe which plane you're talking about.
So the (1,3) element if you wrote it as a matrix would correspond to stress in
the x-z plane.  This makes for 9 elements total.  Now if we're talking
relativity and such, it gets a little more complex.  But I guess you already
looked it up on Wikipedia, so I don't know what I'm rambling on about.

 - Ricky

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