Dev Stack Source

Answer : Scalar quantities can be negative. Instead of saying "scalar quantities have only magnitudes," a better description might be that a scalar quantity can be described using only one number per point in space. That number may be positive or negative. In contrast, a vector quantity cannot be described using only one number per point in space. In 3-d space, we need 3 numbers per point in space to describe a vector quantity. The word "magnitude," whether applied to a scalar or a vector or anything else, normally refers to a non-negative number. It is sometimes used to refer to the absolute value of a scalar, and sometimes used to refer to the norm (e.g., length) of a vector. In summary, this is how the words are typically used: Scalar typically refers to a single element of a number field (or a single element per point in space), such as a real number (which can be positive or negative) or even a complex number (this is common in the context of q...

Answer : There are certain (informal) nuances I believe: Symposium - Prestigious conferences, generally leading venues in their respective fields. Example: Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, European Test Symposium, Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS) etc Conference - Regular venues for publications, may range from established venues to the archaic. I understand the bulk of publications of most researchers are in one conference or other, as symposiums tend to have a very low acceptance rate. Meeting - I'm not so sure there are many of these, but I understand that it is more of a forum for interaction/surveys/posters than for publication of full papers. (I based my answer on the description for SIAM Annual Meeting 2012, which describes itself as providing "a broad view of the state of the art in applied mathematics, computational science, and their applications through invited presentation, prize lectures, minisymposia, and contributed papers and posters...