Darryl Maddox wrote:
> Does anyone on this list know why the symbol s is used for displacement =
> in physics? If I had to guess I would guess that is to differentiate it =
> from the concept of distance which is not a vector. But it looks to me =
> like it would be much less confusing to the students if we used d for =
> the scaler quantity distance and d for the vector quantity displacement.
Usually r, in boldface or with an arrow over it, is used for the
displacement vector while s is often used for its magnitude, though I don't
know of any compelling reason for either. d isn't so good for either because
it's a standard symbol for differentiation and something like dd/dt is
confusing.
Once you get to discussions of any complexity it's not feasible to try
to have a different symbol for every quantity. r is a radial coordinate and s
is also the 4-dimensional interval in relativity (more precisely, ds is the
infinitesimal interval) as well as specific entropy - & is sometimes used for
the speed of sound.
Something that might be a bit easier to track down historically is the
rationale for the symbols used for fundamental constants. G for the
gravitational constant is obvious (at least in English) - but why c for the
speed of light?
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
"The Science-Theology Interface"
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