IIT JEE , AIEEE Forum - Physics , Electricity - This might seem absurd...but still...Is permittivity a vector/scalar?

indr12365

This might seem absurd...but still...Is permittivity a vector/scalar?

ashgirl

scalar i think

abhay_yadav80

ya scalar

iitjee08aspirant

but if permitivitty is scalar then howcome its multiplication wid mu(permiability) a vector i mean to say

we have that relation na c=1/ $\sqrt{\epsilon\mu}$

so is permiability a vector????

me

oh come on people
it is not any physical quantity,to be a scalar or vector
it is just a constant for a particular thing depending on its magnetic properties

indrajeet_bariar

@ ME
HEY DUDE THEN U MUST SAY THT ITS ABSURD ASKING WHETHER DENSITY IS SCALER OR VECTOR AND NO EXAM SHOULD ASK ANY QUESTION LIKE THIS UT ITS DEFINITELY ASKED. BUT ACCORDING TO U DENSITY IS ALSO A CONSTANT FOR A PARTICULAR MATERIAL SO IT ALSO MUST NOT BE A PHYSICAL QUANTITY.
DEFINITELY I DO NOT AGREE WITH U

indrajeet_bariar

@iitjee08aspirant

SEE, WHEN V CALCULATE THE VALUE OF C BY THE FORMULA GIVEN BY U, ITS ONLY THE MAGNITUDE OF THE VELOCITY V R CALCULATING AND THEREFORE PERMITTIVITY IS DEFINITELY A SCALER QUANTITY BECAUSE BY THE VALUES OF $\mu$ and $\epsilon$ we can never determine the direction of velocity of light . therefore its only the magnitude of velocity we are calculating by ur formula and therefore it is very well justified why it should be a scaler quantity.

SO GUYS, PERMITTIVITY IS A SCALER QUANTITY.

PLZ... VOTE IF SATISFIED OR V CAN OPEN UP FURTHER DISCUSSION.

PATELTEJAS

its a constant .THE DONT HAVE direction and is property of whole medium .BY the way costants are neither scaler or vectors

indr12365

EVERYONE LISTEN!!!
In Coulomb"s law V 've a force term in LHS.
unit of permittivity is C^2/m^2*N
see ter's a Newton here...so isn't it/is it necessary tat it is a vector?

thedumbheadwithnobrain

it is a tensor when medium is non isotropic and otherwise scalar

indr12365

NOW PLEASE... ANY ONE TELL ME EXACTLY what a TENSOR is?

v.sabarish

@ above.....
My instincts agree with you
My knowledge says it's a scalar

thedumbheadwithnobrain

well if u really want to know see this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensor

and some more examples are
Moment of Inertia,mass,viscosity

alice

every quantity is tensor bye the way but still confirm it from experts

indrajeet_bariar

@indr
ok leave all tht tensor and everything else tht confuses u. definitely it is a scaler quantity. now as far as ur doubt at its unit, recall the exact form of coulombs law. actually i mean to say its vector form. now u can see tht in RHS there is a unit vector r there. this unit vector is there so tht the the quantity on both side of equation overall comes to be vector. so theres no need for epsilon to be vector.
HOPE U UNDERSTOOD WHT I WANT TO TELL OR U CAN ASK FURTHER.
RATE IF SATISFIED.

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