[a. L. vector, agent-noun f. vehĕre to carry. So (in sense 1) Sp. and Pg. vector, F. vecteur.]
† 1. Astr. (See quot. 1704.) Also vector radius, = radius vector RADIUS 3 e. Obs.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. s.v., A Line supposed to be drawn from any Planet moving round a Center, or the Focus of an Ellipsis, to that Center or Focus, is by some Writers of the New Astronomy, called the Vector; because ’tis that Line by which the Planet seems to be carried round its Center.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 28. If a right line, called by some the vector radius, be drawn from the sun through any planet, and supposed to revolve round the sun with the planet [etc.].
2. Math. A quantity having direction as well as magnitude, denoted by a line drawn from its original to its final position.
a. 1865. Sir W. R. Hamilton, Elem. Quaternions, I. i. 1. A right line AB, considered as having not only length, but also direction, is said to be a Vector.
1881. J. C. Maxwell, Electr. & Magn., II. 28. The vector, whose components are F.G.H., is called the vector-potential of magnetic induction.
1882. Minchin, Unipl. Kinemat., 109. The resultant of a system of vectors whose type is ω . IP dm, if each were directed from I to P, would be a vector ω M . IG directed from I to G.
attrib. 1878. W. K. Clifford, Dynamic, 95. We are led to two different kinds of product of two vectors,… a vector product … and a scalar product.
1880. Nature, XXI. 256. Some Vector property (such as rotation about an axis).
1897. Curry, Theory Electr. & Magnetism, 361. If we replace the vector-equation by its three component-equations and the vector-integrals of the latter by the above values.
