meanfreepath (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
meanfreepath) wrote2006-09-25 09:48 pm
meanfreepath) wrote2006-09-25 09:48 pm
(no subject)
So I guess I've been inadvertently lying for the last two years or so every time I've told someone in the Physics Clinic that quantities like magnetic field B or torque are vectors. But what else do you tell people in introductory physics?
Until today I really did believe that B was a vector. But having finally managed to work out a long E/M problem on the transformation properties of vectors vs. pseudovectors (aka axial vectors), and having shown that curls transform like pseudovectors, I stand corrected. For while pseudovectors transform like vectors under some orthogonal transformations, such as rotations, they don't transform like vectors under reflections or switching from right to left-handed coordinates.
Until today I really did believe that B was a vector. But having finally managed to work out a long E/M problem on the transformation properties of vectors vs. pseudovectors (aka axial vectors), and having shown that curls transform like pseudovectors, I stand corrected. For while pseudovectors transform like vectors under some orthogonal transformations, such as rotations, they don't transform like vectors under reflections or switching from right to left-handed coordinates.