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Motion in A Plane
Question
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A vector has both magnitude and direction. Does it mean that anything that has magnitude and direction is necessarily a vector? The rotation of a body can be specified by the direction of the axis of rotation, and the angle of rotation about the axis. Does that make any rotation a vector?

Answer

For a quantity to be a vector, magnitude and direction are not the only sufficient conditions. Rotation of a body is specified by direction. But, it is not necessary that it is always a vector quantity. Finite rotation of a body about an axis is not a vector because finite rotation does not obey the laws of vector additions. Only infinitesimally small rotation is a vector quantity.

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Some More Questions From Motion in A Plane Chapter

Is a physical quantity, having a direction, necessarily a vector?

Name a quantity which is both scalar as well as vector.

Which of the followings is/are vector quantities: work, power, acceleration, mass, momentum?

Pick up the odd one from the following: force, linear momentum, mass, impulse.

Pick out the only vector quantities in the following list:
Temperature, pressure, impulse, time, power, total path length, energy, gravitational potential, coefficient of friction and charge.

Pick out the two scalar quantities in the following list:
force, angular momentum, work, current, linear momentum, electric field, average velocity, magnetic moment, reaction as per Newton’s third law, relative velocity.

What are polar vectors?

Give two examples of polar vectors.

What are axial vectors?

Give two examples of axial vectors.