Tuesday, 30 June 2020

reference frames - How to understand the definition of vector and tensor?


Physics texts like to define vector as something that transform like a vector and tensor as something that transform like a tensor, which is different from the definition in math books. I am having difficulty understanding this kind of definition. To me, it goes like this:





  1. First we have a collection of bases or coordinate systems (do these represent reference frames?) and the transformations between them.




  2. A vector/tensor is an assignment of an array of numbers to each basis, and these arrays are related to each other by coordinate transformations.




I am wondering how coordinate systems and transformations are specified.





  1. Do we need all possible coordinate systems and transformations to define a vector space or just a few of them?




  2. How to define the concept of basis and coordinate transformation without completing the very notion of vector?






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