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In mathematics, the magnitude or size of a
mathematical object A mathematical object is an abstract concept arising in mathematics. In the usual language of mathematics, an ''object'' is anything that has been (or could be) formally defined, and with which one may do deductive reasoning and mathematical ...
is a property which determines whether the object is larger or smaller than other objects of the same kind. More formally, an object's magnitude is the displayed result of an ordering (or ranking)—of the class of objects to which it belongs. In
physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which rel ...
, magnitude can be defined as quantity or distance.


History

The Greeks distinguished between several types of magnitude, including: *Positive
fraction A fraction (from la, fractus, "broken") represents a part of a whole or, more generally, any number of equal parts. When spoken in everyday English, a fraction describes how many parts of a certain size there are, for example, one-half, eight ...
s *
Line segment In geometry, a line segment is a part of a straight line that is bounded by two distinct end points, and contains every point on the line that is between its endpoints. The length of a line segment is given by the Euclidean distance between ...
s (ordered by
length Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a base unit for length is chosen, from which all other units are derived. In the Inte ...
) * Plane figures (ordered by
area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while ''surface area'' refers to the area of an open su ...
) * Solids (ordered by
volume Volume is a measure of occupied three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch). Th ...
) * Angles (ordered by angular magnitude) They proved that the first two could not be the same, or even isomorphic systems of magnitude. They did not consider negative magnitudes to be meaningful, and ''magnitude'' is still primarily used in contexts in which
zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation such as the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, 0 also serves as a placeholder numerical digit, which works by multiplying digits to the left of 0 by the radix, usu ...
is either the smallest size or less than all possible sizes.


Numbers

The magnitude of any
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers ...
x is usually called its '' absolute value'' or ''modulus'', denoted by , x, .


Real numbers

The absolute value of a
real number In mathematics, a real number is a number that can be used to measurement, measure a ''continuous'' one-dimensional quantity such as a distance, time, duration or temperature. Here, ''continuous'' means that values can have arbitrarily small var ...
''r'' is defined by: : \left, r \ = r, \text r \text 0 : \left, r \ = -r, \text r < 0 . Absolute value may also be thought of as the number's
distance Distance is a numerical or occasionally qualitative measurement of how far apart objects or points are. In physics or everyday usage, distance may refer to a physical length or an estimation based on other criteria (e.g. "two counties over"). ...
from zero on the real
number line In elementary mathematics, a number line is a picture of a graduated straight line that serves as visual representation of the real numbers. Every point of a number line is assumed to correspond to a real number, and every real number to a po ...
. For example, the absolute value of both 70 and −70 is 70.


Complex numbers

A
complex number In mathematics, a complex number is an element of a number system that extends the real numbers with a specific element denoted , called the imaginary unit and satisfying the equation i^= -1; every complex number can be expressed in the for ...
''z'' may be viewed as the position of a point ''P'' in a
2-dimensional space In mathematics, a plane is a Euclidean (flat), two-dimensional surface that extends indefinitely. A plane is the two-dimensional analogue of a point (zero dimensions), a line (one dimension) and three-dimensional space. Planes can arise as su ...
, called the
complex plane In mathematics, the complex plane is the plane formed by the complex numbers, with a Cartesian coordinate system such that the -axis, called the real axis, is formed by the real numbers, and the -axis, called the imaginary axis, is formed by th ...
. The absolute value (or '' modulus'') of ''z'' may be thought of as the distance of ''P'' from the origin of that space. The formula for the absolute value of is similar to that for the Euclidean norm of a vector in a 2-dimensional
Euclidean space Euclidean space is the fundamental space of geometry, intended to represent physical space. Originally, that is, in Euclid's ''Elements'', it was the three-dimensional space of Euclidean geometry, but in modern mathematics there are Euclidean sp ...
: :\left, z \ = \sqrt where the real numbers ''a'' and ''b'' are the real part and the imaginary part of ''z'', respectively. For instance, the modulus of is \sqrt = 5. Alternatively, the magnitude of a complex number ''z'' may be defined as the square root of the product of itself and its
complex conjugate In mathematics, the complex conjugate of a complex number is the number with an equal real part and an imaginary part equal in magnitude but opposite in sign. That is, (if a and b are real, then) the complex conjugate of a + bi is equal to a - ...
, \bar, where for any complex number z = a + bi, its complex conjugate is \bar = a -bi. : \left, z \ = \sqrt = \sqrt = \sqrt = \sqrt (where i^2 = -1).


Vector spaces


Euclidean vector space

A
Euclidean vector In mathematics, physics, and engineering, a Euclidean vector or simply a vector (sometimes called a geometric vector or spatial vector) is a geometric object that has magnitude (or length) and direction. Vectors can be added to other vectors ...
represents the position of a point ''P'' in a
Euclidean space Euclidean space is the fundamental space of geometry, intended to represent physical space. Originally, that is, in Euclid's ''Elements'', it was the three-dimensional space of Euclidean geometry, but in modern mathematics there are Euclidean sp ...
. Geometrically, it can be described as an arrow from the origin of the space (vector tail) to that point (vector tip). Mathematically, a vector x in an ''n''-dimensional Euclidean space can be defined as an ordered list of ''n'' real numbers (the Cartesian coordinates of ''P''): ''x'' = 'x''1, ''x''2, ..., ''x''''n'' Its magnitude or length, denoted by \, x\, , is most commonly defined as its Euclidean norm (or Euclidean length): :\, \mathbf\, = \sqrt. For instance, in a 3-dimensional space, the magnitude of , 4, 12is 13 because \sqrt = \sqrt = 13. This is equivalent to the
square root In mathematics, a square root of a number is a number such that ; in other words, a number whose ''square'' (the result of multiplying the number by itself, or  ⋅ ) is . For example, 4 and −4 are square roots of 16, because . ...
of the
dot product In mathematics, the dot product or scalar productThe term ''scalar product'' means literally "product with a scalar as a result". It is also used sometimes for other symmetric bilinear forms, for example in a pseudo-Euclidean space. is an alg ...
of the vector with itself: :\, \mathbf\, = \sqrt. The Euclidean norm of a vector is just a special case of Euclidean distance: the distance between its tail and its tip. Two similar notations are used for the Euclidean norm of a vector ''x'': #\left \, \mathbf \right \, , #\left , \mathbf \right , . A disadvantage of the second notation is that it can also be used to denote the absolute value of scalars and the
determinant In mathematics, the determinant is a scalar value that is a function of the entries of a square matrix. It characterizes some properties of the matrix and the linear map represented by the matrix. In particular, the determinant is nonzero if ...
s of matrices, which introduces an element of ambiguity.


Normed vector spaces

By definition, all Euclidean vectors have a magnitude (see above). However, a vector in an abstract
vector space In 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 ...
does not possess a magnitude. A
vector space In 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 ...
endowed with a norm, such as the Euclidean space, is called a
normed vector space In mathematics, a normed vector space or normed space is a vector space over the real or complex numbers, on which a norm is defined. A norm is the formalization and the generalization to real vector spaces of the intuitive notion of "leng ...
. The norm of a vector ''v'' in a normed vector space can be considered to be the magnitude of ''v''.


Pseudo-Euclidean space

In a
pseudo-Euclidean space In mathematics and theoretical physics, a pseudo-Euclidean space is a finite- dimensional real -space together with a non-degenerate quadratic form . Such a quadratic form can, given a suitable choice of basis , be applied to a vector , giving q(x ...
, the magnitude of a vector is the value of the
quadratic form In mathematics, a quadratic form is a polynomial with terms all of degree two ("form" is another name for a homogeneous polynomial). For example, :4x^2 + 2xy - 3y^2 is a quadratic form in the variables and . The coefficients usually belong to ...
for that vector.


Logarithmic magnitudes

When comparing magnitudes, a
logarithm In mathematics, the logarithm is the inverse function to exponentiation. That means the logarithm of a number  to the base  is the exponent to which must be raised, to produce . For example, since , the ''logarithm base'' 10 of ...
ic scale is often used. Examples include the loudness of a
sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by ...
(measured in
decibels The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whose levels differ by one decibel have a pow ...
), the
brightness Brightness is an attribute of visual perception in which a source appears to be radiating or reflecting light. In other words, brightness is the perception elicited by the luminance of a visual target. The perception is not linear to luminance, ...
of a
star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth make ...
, and the Richter scale of earthquake intensity. Logarithmic magnitudes can be negative, and cannot be added or subtracted meaningfully (since the relationship is non-linear).


Order of magnitude

Orders of magnitude denote differences in numeric quantities, usually measurements, by a factor of 10—that is, a difference of one digit in the location of the decimal point.


See also

* Number sense * Vector notation *
Set size In mathematics, the cardinality of a set is a measure of the number of elements of the set. For example, the set A = \ contains 3 elements, and therefore A has a cardinality of 3. Beginning in the late 19th century, this concept was generalized ...


References

{{reflist Elementary mathematics Unary operations