Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

[Phys-L] Re: Area vector



On Tuesday, March 29, 2005, at 02:27 PM, Tony Wayne wrote:
Does any one know why the "area vector" for a surface is defined as
being normal to the plane of the surface instead of parallel to the
plane of the surface?
-Tony
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Tony Wayne
twayne@albemarle.org
http://physics.k12albemarle.org

Cool Question; I like these. Maybe because parallel is
under-specified; there are an infinite number of vectors parallel to a
surface (think of number of lines in a plane). Perpendicular limits
you to 2 directions separated by 180deg only (pretty unique with
trivial redundancy).

Dan MacIsaac, Assistant Professor of Physics, SUNY-Buffalo State College
222SCIE BSC, 1300 Elmwood Ave , Buffalo NY 14222 USA 716-878-3802
<macisadl@buffalostate.edu> <http://PhysicsEd.BuffaloState.edu>
_______________________________________________
Phys-L mailing list
Phys-L@electron.physics.buffalo.edu
https://www.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l