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tensor
(redirected from Tensor veli palatini)

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Wikipedia 0.03 sec.
tensor, in mathematics, quantity that depends linearly on several vector U [−3,1] and V [5,2], one can add their corresponding components to find the resultant vector R [2,3], or one can graph U and V on a set of coordinate axes and complete the parallelogram formed with U and V
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 variables and that varies covariantly with respect to some variables and contravariantly with respect to others when the coordinate axes are rotated (see Cartesian coordinates Cartesian coordinates (kärtē`zhən)
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). Tensors appear throughout mathematics, though they were first treated systematically in the calculus calculus, branch of mathematics that studies continuously changing quantities. The calculus is characterized by the use of infinite processes, involving passage to a limit —the notion of tending toward, or approaching, an ultimate value.
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 of differential forms and in differential geometry r moves along a curve at arc length s from some fixed point, then t = dr/ds is a unit tangent vector to the curve at r. The normal vector n
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. They play an important role in mathematical physics, particularly in the theory of relativity relativity, physical theory, introduced by Albert Einstein, that discards the concept of absolute motion and instead treats only relative motion between two systems or frames of reference.
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. Tensors are also important in the theory of elasticity, where they are used to describe stress and strain. The study of tensors was formerly known as the absolute differential calculus but is now called simply tensor analysis.

Bibliography

See R. Abraham et al., Manifolds, Tensor Analysis, and Applications (1988).


tensor [′ten·sər]
(mathematics)
An object relative to a locally euclidean space which possesses a specified system of components for every coordinate system and which changes under a transformation of coordinates.
A multilinear function on the cartesian product of several copies of a vector space and the dual of the vector space to the field of scalars on the vector space.


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2) The tensor veli palatini is the most functionally significant muscle that actively opens the eustachian tube.
Mortimore et al wrote that upper airway obstruction at the retropalatal level is related to the imbalance between the activity of the levator and tensor veli palatini muscles, which elevate and tense the soft palate, and the activity of the palatoglossus and palatopharyngeus muscles, which depress the soft palate anteroinferiorly.
 
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