tensor

Update on 9 April 2016.  At the bottom of this post, I attach a pdf file of my notes on scalar.

Notes on scalars now forms part of my notes on linear algebra.

Linear algebra is significant to many aspects of mechanics.  For some years I have been using the book by Shilov.  But this book may or may not be a good one to recommend to a student, depending on his or her prior experience.  On StackExchange Mathematics, there are several excellent threads discussing textbooks of linear algebra.  A particular recommendation was made for

Checking the iMechanica web, I notice some discussion about the Cauchy stress tensor, whether it is covariant or contravariant.  Well, a tensor is neither covariant nor contravariant, while it can be expressed by its covariant, contravariant, or mixed *components* with respect to any arbitrary coordinate system. See the attached short explanation.

Some of you probably work on problems that involve moderately large strains. An useful strain measure for such problems in the logarithmic or Hencky strain. In particular, if you deal with the numerics of large strain simulations, you will often need to compute the material time derivatives of logarithmic strains.