Which of the following is a scalar quantity?
displacement
perpendicular component of force
parallel component of force
work
4 answers
DISPLACEMENT
I am inclined to disagree.
Displacement is a vector with magnitude and direction. DISTANCE is the scalar magnitude of displacement.
However Work, for example in Joules, is clearly scalar and has no direction. It is a dot product of force and displacement vectors and has no direction.
Displacement is a vector with magnitude and direction. DISTANCE is the scalar magnitude of displacement.
However Work, for example in Joules, is clearly scalar and has no direction. It is a dot product of force and displacement vectors and has no direction.
Components of vectors such as components of a force vector are also scalars. They are the dot product of the vector with the unit vector in the component direction.
For example Fx = F dot i = |F|cos of angle to x axis