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Mathematics
Calculus
Ambiguity w/ Newton's dot notation + vector-magnitudes
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[QUOTE="kuruman, post: 6010822, member: 192687"] In my opinion one ought to stick to the convention that boldface means "vector" and italics means "scalar". So I would interpret ##\dot v## as the time derivative of the speed. If I wanted to express the magnitude of the acceleration, I would write ##\ddot r## or ##|\dot {\textbf {v}}|## or ##a## . However, your point is well taken as there are people who sometimes carelessly write expressions they don't really mean. The dreaded sign error that you mention is often seen in PF postings where there is vertical projectile motion with air resistance proportional to some power of the speed. [B]On edit:[/B] The correct magnitude of the acceleration should be ##|\ddot {\textbf {r}}|##. [/QUOTE]
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Forums
Mathematics
Calculus
Ambiguity w/ Newton's dot notation + vector-magnitudes
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