Basic vectors?

Discussion in 'Physics & Math' started by qfrontier, Sep 8, 2003.

  1. qfrontier Captain Of Starship Registered Senior Member

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    Are there any books out there on understanding stuff like adding, subtracting, scalar, 3d vectors....A book that goes from basic to hard?
     
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  3. Tom2 Registered Senior Member

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    I like the Schaum's Outline called Vector Analysis.
     
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  5. qfrontier Captain Of Starship Registered Senior Member

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    Does it clearly explain about adding vectors etc..?
     
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  7. On Radioactive Waves lost in the continuum Registered Senior Member

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    Schaums outlines are sorta like math cliffnotes;they are better for review than learning the concept, it's an outline. They dont explain concepts in detail if that is what you want. If you are already familiar with the concepts, then I would reccomend it.
     
  8. qfrontier Captain Of Starship Registered Senior Member

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    Im not familiar at all, Im a beginner to vectors and stuff, so I was wondering if you guys knew any books that will teach it from the absolute beginning?
     
  9. Dapthar Gone for Good. Registered Senior Member

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    The topics you have listed would take only 1-2 days to learn from a basic Linear Algebra book, I used Gilbert Strang's
    Introduction to Linear Algebra. As a bonus, the lectures given by the author are online here: http://web.mit.edu/18.06/www/Video/video-fall-99.html.

    I don't believe that the book assumes much prior knowledge for the vector material in Chapter 3, however, some of the later chapters in the book may need some Calculus I and II information.

    If you want to continue studying vectors after finishing the topics in the above book, I suggest looking into Vector Calculus. Prerequisites for that are Calculus I and II, and most of the time, it is simply included at the end of Multivariable Calculus.
     
  10. qfrontier Captain Of Starship Registered Senior Member

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    Thank you for your info guys, thanks so much!! But is there vector stuff in ALL linear algebra books? Cuz then I can try to get some from library and do it...
     
  11. Dapthar Gone for Good. Registered Senior Member

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    203
    No problem, glad to help.


    I'm not sure, there should be, but just flip to the table of contents and see if there is a chapter on "Vectors and Vector Spaces" or something similar. That should contain the information you're looking for on vectors and basic operations, like addition, subtraction, dot products, cross products, and so on.
     

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