Etymology Borrowed from Latin scālāris, adjectival form from scāla (“a flight of steps, stairs, staircase, ladder, scale”), for *scadla, from scandere (“to climb”); compare scale. The mathematics sense was coined by Irish mathematician and astronomer William Rowan Hamilton in 1846.
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Mathematics, Sciences Having magnitude but not direction.
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Computer, Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Science, Sciences Consisting of a single value (e.g. integer or string) rather than multiple values (e.g. array).
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Of, or relating to scale.
However, it can be expected that 'scale-similarity' models of this form will be inadequate for describing non-equilibrium scalar fields resulting, for example, from non-equilibrium inlet flow conditions.2003, Rodney O. Fox, Computational Models for Turbulent Reacting Flows:
Scalar thickening is useful for understanding the propensity of scales to coalesce in certain times and places, or even how a particular scale provides conditions for other forms of scalar production.2015, Raymond L Bryant, The International Handbook of Political Ecology, page 504:
Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics Relating to particles with a spin (quantum angular momentum) of 0 (known as spin 0).
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Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences Pertaining to the dimension on which something is measured.
Spector (2006, 2007) suggests to derive this inference as a scalar implicature.2014, Salvatore Pistoia Reda, Pragmatics, Semantics and the Case of Scalar Implicatures:
Also, the scalar meaning in both sentences is not sensitive to context, because the truth value of the sentences does not change depending on context.2018, Osamu Sawada, Pragmatic Aspects of Scalar Modifiers, page 26:
1 more example
In Mandarin Chinese, the same sentence containing a numeral-classifier phrase as a negative polarity item can be employed for two types of scalar inferences based on either the numeral or the noun.2019, Penka Stateva, Anne Reboul, Scalar Implicatures, page 8:
Etymology Borrowed from Latin scālāris, adjectival form from scāla (“a flight of steps, stairs, staircase, ladder, scale”), for *scadla, from scandere (“to climb”); compare scale. The mathematics sense was coined by Irish mathematician and astronomer William Rowan Hamilton in 1846.
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Mathematics, Sciences A quantity that has magnitude but not direction.