Field: Difference between revisions
From Glossary of Meteorology
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<div class="definition"><div class="short_definition">In its restricted physical sense, any physical quantity that varies in three-dimensional space (and possibly time), usually continuously except possibly on surfaces or curves.</div><br/> <div class="paragraph">Field quantities often satisfy partial differential equations. An example of a [[scalar]] field is the [[temperature]] ''T''(''x'', ''y'', ''z'', ''t'') at time ''t'' at each point (''x'', ''y'', ''z'') of a solid body; an example of a [[vector field]] is the (local) [[velocity]] field '''v'''(''x'', ''y'', ''z'', ''t'') in a fluid, the separate parts of which are in motion relative to each other. The [[continuity]] of these fields is a mathematical fiction, obtained by averaging over volumes containing many atoms or molecules but still small on a macroscopic [[scale]].</div><br/> </div> | <div class="definition"><div class="short_definition">In its restricted physical sense, any physical quantity that varies in three-dimensional space (and possibly time), usually continuously except possibly on surfaces or curves.</div><br/> <div class="paragraph">Field quantities often satisfy partial differential equations. An example of a [[scalar]] field is the [[temperature]] ''T''(''x'', ''y'', ''z'', ''t'') at time ''t'' at each point (''x'', ''y'', ''z'') of a solid body; an example of a [[vector field|vector field]] is the (local) [[velocity]] field '''v'''(''x'', ''y'', ''z'', ''t'') in a fluid, the separate parts of which are in motion relative to each other. The [[continuity]] of these fields is a mathematical fiction, obtained by averaging over volumes containing many atoms or molecules but still small on a macroscopic [[scale]].</div><br/> </div> | ||
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Latest revision as of 15:57, 25 April 2012
field
In its restricted physical sense, any physical quantity that varies in three-dimensional space (and possibly time), usually continuously except possibly on surfaces or curves.
Field quantities often satisfy partial differential equations. An example of a scalar field is the temperature T(x, y, z, t) at time t at each point (x, y, z) of a solid body; an example of a vector field is the (local) velocity field v(x, y, z, t) in a fluid, the separate parts of which are in motion relative to each other. The continuity of these fields is a mathematical fiction, obtained by averaging over volumes containing many atoms or molecules but still small on a macroscopic scale.
