Maxwell's equationsMaxwell's equations, or Maxwell–Heaviside equations, are a set of coupled partial differential equations that, together with the Lorentz force law, form the foundation of classical electromagnetism, classical optics, and electric circuits. The equations provide a mathematical model for electric, optical, and radio technologies, such as power generation, electric motors, wireless communication, lenses, radar, etc. They describe how electric and magnetic fields are generated by charges, currents, and changes of the fields.
Origin (mathematics)In mathematics, the origin of a Euclidean space is a special point, usually denoted by the letter O, used as a fixed point of reference for the geometry of the surrounding space. In physical problems, the choice of origin is often arbitrary, meaning any choice of origin will ultimately give the same answer. This allows one to pick an origin point that makes the mathematics as simple as possible, often by taking advantage of some kind of geometric symmetry. In a Cartesian coordinate system, the origin is the point where the axes of the system intersect.
Position (geometry)In geometry, a position or position vector, also known as location vector or radius vector, is a Euclidean vector that represents the position of a point P in space in relation to an arbitrary reference origin O. Usually denoted x, r, or s, it corresponds to the straight line segment from O to P. In other words, it is the displacement or translation that maps the origin to P: The term position vector is used mostly in the fields of differential geometry, mechanics and occasionally vector calculus.
Category of modulesIn algebra, given a ring R, the category of left modules over R is the whose are all left modules over R and whose morphisms are all module homomorphisms between left R-modules. For example, when R is the ring of integers Z, it is the same thing as the . The category of right modules is defined in a similar way. One can also define the category of bimodules over a ring R but that category is equivalent to the category of left (or right) modules over the enveloping algebra of R (or over the opposite of that).
Monoid (category theory)In , a branch of mathematics, a monoid (or monoid object, or internal monoid, or algebra) (M, μ, η) in a (C, ⊗, I) is an M together with two morphisms μ: M ⊗ M → M called multiplication, η: I → M called unit, such that the pentagon and the unitor diagram commute. In the above notation, 1 is the identity morphism of M, I is the unit element and α, λ and ρ are respectively the associativity, the left identity and the right identity of the monoidal category C. Dually, a comonoid in a monoidal category C is a monoid in the Cop.
Compact closed categoryIn , a branch of mathematics, compact closed categories are a general context for treating dual objects. The idea of a dual object generalizes the more familiar concept of the dual of a finite-dimensional vector space. So, the motivating example of a compact closed category is FdVect, the having finite-dimensional vector spaces as s and linear maps as s, with tensor product as the structure. Another example is , the category having sets as objects and relations as morphisms, with .
Complex numberIn mathematics, a complex number is an element of a number system that extends the real numbers with a specific element denoted i, called the imaginary unit and satisfying the equation ; every complex number can be expressed in the form , where a and b are real numbers. Because no real number satisfies the above equation, i was called an imaginary number by René Descartes. For the complex number , a is called the , and b is called the . The set of complex numbers is denoted by either of the symbols or C.
Vector spaceIn mathematics and physics, a vector space (also called a linear space) is a set whose elements, often called vectors, may be added together and multiplied ("scaled") by numbers called scalars. Scalars are often real numbers, but can be complex numbers or, more generally, elements of any field. The operations of vector addition and scalar multiplication must satisfy certain requirements, called vector axioms. The terms real vector space and complex vector space are often used to specify the nature of the scalars: real coordinate space or complex coordinate space.
Closed monoidal categoryIn mathematics, especially in , a closed monoidal category (or a monoidal closed category) is a that is both a and a in such a way that the structures are compatible. A classic example is the , Set, where the monoidal product of sets and is the usual cartesian product , and the internal Hom is the set of functions from to . A non- example is the , K-Vect, over a field . Here the monoidal product is the usual tensor product of vector spaces, and the internal Hom is the vector space of linear maps from one vector space to another.
Universal propertyIn mathematics, more specifically in , a universal property is a property that characterizes up to an isomorphism the result of some constructions. Thus, universal properties can be used for defining some objects independently from the method chosen for constructing them. For example, the definitions of the integers from the natural numbers, of the rational numbers from the integers, of the real numbers from the rational numbers, and of polynomial rings from the field of their coefficients can all be done in terms of universal properties.
