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-----Original Message-----/Snip/
From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu [mailto:phys-l-
bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu] On Behalf Of John Denker
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 12:54 PM
To: Forum for Physics Educators
Subject: Re: [Phys-l] Motion in 1D, vectors and vector components
***Minor edit to last line above: last word changed from "number" to
Possibly constructive suggestion: I find it useful to distinguish:
-- the x-component of a vector (which is a scalar) versus
-- the x-projection of a vector (which is a vector).
In particular,
-- the x-component of V is <x|V> (a scalar)
-- the x-projection of V is |x><x|V> (a vector in the x-
direction)
where |x> is a unit vector in the x-direction.
I realize that some people promiscuously use "component" to mean
either the scalar /or/ the vector (i.e. the thing I am calling the
projection). However, I think it is worth making the distinction.
If somebody has better terminology, i.e. a better way of making
the distinction, I'd love to hear about it.
/snip/
A second quick check involves looking to see if the term
"projection" is in the index. Alas I don't offhand know of
any general-physics texts that pass this test. (If anybody
knows of one, please tell us about it.)