Question

"A Scalar quantity can never take a negative value." Tell if it's true or false with reason.

Answer 1

Temperature is a scalar. Energy is a scalar. These quantities can be negative.

I remember this because I was tricked.

The key thing is that vectors have DIRECTION. Temperature, energy etc don't have this thing called direction.

Answer 2

in general scalar quantities in s.i. units cant b negative... as -ve nd +ve represents direction... which is for vectors

Answer 3

@Festinger yeah..no one thinks about that..I also thought about it now..Seriously i thought scalars cant be negative:D..Real tricky one

Answer 4

If scalars cant be -ve....wat bout temp -15 degrees(trick question)!!

Answer 5

@Festinger but when we look at temperature in Kelvin scale. Temperature can never be negative.
energy is not negative...altho the change may be negative..

Answer 6

@cambridge
same reply

Answer 7

Not true. We can have negative temperature by achieving something called population inversion, though this is really going off point. In any event it was not my intention to promote the idea that negative temperatures exist, but rather show that scalars can have negative values, and not everything you see that has a negative sign is a vector.

Vectors, having magnitude and direction, in the sense of direction, has more than just mere negative signs.

For example if we take 1D motion, left and right, we make left positive and then right automatically assumes the negative. The same is true for 2D motions.

In doing so repeatedly, we might assume that anything with a negative sign is a vector. That is not true because we defined vector as having direction, not negative signs.

Answer 8

I'm with @Festinger. It's called a scalar because it's any possible value on a scale of progressive values. In many cases, the possible values on the scale can go from negative to positive.

And if you wiki it:
"According to a citation in the Oxford English Dictionary the first recorded usage of the term in English was by W. R. Hamilton in 1846, to refer to the real part of a quaternion:

The algebraically real part may receive, according to the question in which it occurs, all values contained on the one scale of progression of numbers from negative to positive infinity; we shall call it therefore the scalar part. "

Answer 9

Hi! By definition, I think a scalar can take on any one value. This is in contrast to a vector, which is composed of multiple values.

Answer 10

Also, you'll find negative scalars all over! Many physically meaningful scalar quantities were mentioned above by others! They are simply not vectors. They are independent of vectors. There is no direction to consider. But they can be used with vectors.

Any physical quantity involves scalars, vectors, or both.

Vectors can be expressed as unit vectors (length of \(1\), still indicates direction) with a length given by a multiplying scalar.

Answer 11

Example: On a flat surface...
\(\overrightarrow{F_N}=-\overrightarrow{F_G}=(-1)\left(\overrightarrow{F_G}\right)\)
The \(-1\) is a scalar.

And let's look at displacement versus distance. Distance is independent of direction. Displacement is a direction and distance. So let's look at the direction of \(\sin (45^\circ )\) in a \(xy\) coordinate system.

Answer 12

The vector shown is just there to show direction.

What if the distance for the displacement is \(2\) in that direction?

And what if the distance for the displacement in that direction is \(-2\)?It is just as valid, mathematically.

So, while most scalar quantities you see are positive, they can also be negative, or even \(0\).

Answer 13

A Scalar can be a negative or positive value
It just tell's about the value with reference to '0' value
ok
let's take the temperature of the room is 35 degree
now temperature in refrigrator is about -5 degree
this how it tell about the coolness in the form of numbers