In the context of vectors, is there a difference between the terms "magnitude" and "length"?
I noticed vectors are usually said to have "length" and "direction", but then it is said that people want to find the "magnitude". Is this just a difference in terminology or is there something more to it?
For example, here they discuss "magnitude" and here they use the word "length".
Solution 1:
This is just a difference in terminology. This quantity is also called the norm of a vector. If we are thinking of a vector as representing the line segment from the origin to a given point, we may interpret the norm as the length of this line segment. If we are thinking of a vector as representing a physical quantity like acceleration or velocity, we may interpret the norm as the magnitude of this quantity (how "large" it is, regardless of its direction).