The physical components of vectors and tensors

Abstract

Physical components of vectors and tensors referred to general curvilinear co-ordinates are defined and shown to represent quantities possessed of the natural physical dimensions of the field and capable of immediate physical interpretation. It is shown that scalar functions of second order tensors may be expressed directly in terms of the invariants of the physical components. For the case of orthogonal co-ordinates, a general formula for the physical components of the covariant derivative of a tensor of any order is derived.