Definition:Scalar Quantity/Examples
Examples of Scalar Quantities
Mass
The mass of a body is a measure of how much matter it contains.
Mass is equivalent to inertia.
Mass also determines the degree to which a body creates or is affected by a gravitational field.
It is a scalar quantity.
Volume
Volume is the measure of the extent of a body.
It has three dimensions and is specified in units of length cubed.
Density
Density is a physical quantity.
The density of a body is its mass per unit volume.
Speed
The speed of a body is a measure of the magnitude of its velocity, taking no account of its direction.
It is, therefore, a scalar quantity.
Temperature
Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantifies how hot or cold a body is.
It is a scalar quantity which can be mapped directly to the real number line.
Electric Potential
An electric potential is the amount of work needed to move a unit of electric charge from a given reference point to a specific point in an electric field without producing an acceleration.
The reference point is usually either Earth or a point at infinity, although any point can be used.
Electric Charge
Electric charge is a physical quantity of matter which causes it to experience a force when near other electrically charged matter.
It is a scalar quantity.
Entropy (Physics)
Entropy is a property of a thermodynamic system.
It quantifies the number $\Omega$ of microstates that are consistent with the macroscopic quantities that characterize the system.
Sources
- 1951: B. Hague: An Introduction to Vector Analysis (5th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Chapter $\text I$: Definitions. Elements of Vector Algebra: $1$. Scalar and Vector Quantities
- 1992: Frederick W. Byron, Jr. and Robert W. Fuller: Mathematics of Classical and Quantum Physics ... (previous) ... (next): Volume One: Chapter $1$ Vectors in Classical Physics: $1.1$ Geometric and Algebraic Definitions of a Vector