Tensors
avni.sh
avni.sh
Sorry to be pedantic here, but in linear algebra, a tensor represents a multilinear operation, i.e., a function that satisfies
F(c*x0 + y0, x1, ..., x{n}) = c*F(x0, x1, ..., x{n}) + F(y0, x1, ..., x{n})
and so on for the other n arguments. The variables x{k} and y0 are vectors here, and c is a scalar. The multiple components come in when you choose bases for all the vector spaces involved there, just like the components of a vector or a matrix.I'm sweeping some stuff under the rug here (like tensor products) because I don't want to go into a full discourse, but that one fact is like 90% of what all tensors do, and with it in hand, you can easily reach the other 10%.
After I have written about bases and vector spaces in a separate article in my series I will redefine the definition of tensor in that context.