To appreciate the advantages of vector notation, one need only compare the cumbersome formulas in Maxwell's old treatise Electricity and Magnetism with the much neater formulas in modern textbooks.

A vector can be represented by a line segment labelled with an arrow. A vector between two points A and B is described as: \(\overrightarrow{AB}\), \(\mathbf{a}\) or \(\underline{a}\). The vector ...