skalar

Skalar is the term used in several languages for the mathematical concept of a scalar; in English the term is scalar. A scalar is a quantity described by magnitude alone and without direction. It can be a real or complex number and may carry a unit.

In mathematics, scalars form the base field of a vector space and are used to scale vectors and matrices through scalar multiplication. The real numbers or complex numbers are common scalar fields. A scalar field, meanwhile, assigns a scalar value to every point in a space, such as temperature at each location.

Scalar quantities include mass, temperature, energy, and electric charge. These values have magnitude but no directional component, and they remain the same under changes of coordinate system. This distinguishes them from vectors, which have both magnitude and direction, and from more general tensors.

In computing, the term scalar also describes primitive, non-aggregate data values, such as integers and floating-point numbers. Depending on the programming language, booleans and characters may also be treated as scalars.