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Mathematics
Calculus
Ambiguity w/ Newton's dot notation + vector-magnitudes
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[QUOTE="SiennaTheGr8, post: 6010780, member: 433080"] Stumbled on a potential pitfall that can arise if you combine Newton's overdot notation (for time-derivatives) with boldface/non-boldface notation for vectors/vector-magnitudes. Say you have ##\textbf{v}## for velocity and ##\dot{\textbf{v}}## for acceleration. Speed is then ##v## (magnitude of velocity vector), but what does ##\dot{v}## mean? There are two possible interpretations: 1) the time-derivative of speed ##v## 2) the magnitude of acceleration ##\dot{\textbf{v}}## In most contexts there's probably little risk of confusion (#2 can often be safely assumed). But one must be particularly careful in the one-dimensional case, when #2 is the absolute value of #1 and either quantity might prove useful. The danger there is a dreaded sign error. [/QUOTE]
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Mathematics
Calculus
Ambiguity w/ Newton's dot notation + vector-magnitudes
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