I am trying to figure out what exactly a dyadic is

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gphys
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Hi,

I am trying to figure out what exactly a dyadic is, and how to evaluate an expression in dyadic form. I have the impression that it is related to tensors. Please let me know of any good links on the web if there are, and thanks for the help!
 
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gphys said:
Hi,

I am trying to figure out what exactly a dyadic is, and how to evaluate an expression in dyadic form. I have the impression that it is related to tensors. Please let me know of any good links on the web if there are, and thanks for the help!

A dyadic is an old fashioned way of trying to do tensor theory using the notation of the vector calculus. It can only work, of course, with tensors of rank two, since one can only take the dot product on left and right sides - unless you want to use up and down, of course. So, basically, it is a tensor of rank 2.

It is far better to avoid dyadics. They are a waste of time. There is no substitute for tensor theory. It does everything you could ever want it to do.