Scalar

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Scalar \Sca"lar\, n. (Math.)
     In the quaternion analysis, a quantity that has magnitude,
     but not direction; -- distinguished from a vector, which has
     both magnitude and direction.
     [1913 Webster]



From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  scalar
       adj : of or relating to a directionless magnitude; "scalar
             implicatures"
       n : a variable quantity that cannot be resolved into components

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  scalar
       
          1.  A single number, as opposed to a {vector} or
          {matrix} of numbers.  Thus, for example, "scalar
          multiplication" refers to the operation of multiplying one
          number (one scalar) by another and is used to contrast this
          with "matrix multiplication" etc.
       
          2.  In a {parallel processor} or {vector
          processor}, the "scalar processor" handles all the sequential
          operations - those which cannot be parallelised or vectorised.
       
          See also {superscalar}.
       
          3.  Any data type that stores a single value
          (e.g. a number or {Boolean}), as opposed to an {aggregate}
          data type that has many elements.  A {string} is regarded as a
          scalar in some languages (e.g. {Perl}) and a vector of
          {characters} in others (e.g. {C}).
       
          (2002-06-12)