vector
vector
[′vek·tər]vector
, as in expressing wind speed and direction. The first three digits indicate direction, and the next two or three digits after the stroke indicate the wind speed.ii. To guide a pilot, navigator, aircraft, or missile from one point to another within a given time by means of a vector communicated to the craft, as in “He vectored the fighter to the intruder.” To instruct a pilot on which heading to take, as in “He vectored him to the alternate airfield.”
vector
(mathematics)vector
(graphics)vector
(operating system)Compare hook.
vector
(programming)vector
(1) In computer graphics, a line designated by its end points (X-Y or X-Y-Z coordinates). When a circle is drawn, it is made up of many small vectors. See vector graphics and graphics.(2) In matrix algebra, a one-row or one-column matrix.
(3) An ordered list of numbers.
(4) An airplane's travel path.
(5) The term is used generically for "pathway" or "avenue" or even an influence of some type. For example, "x, y and z provide multiple threat vectors for malware intrusion" means there are multiple ways for intrusion to occur.
Vector
in the geometric sense, a directed line segment—that is, a segment whose beginning (also called the point of application) and end are indicated. Vectors are denoted by bold Latin letters a, b, … or the ordinary letters with lines or arrows above them: 
A vector that starts at point A and ends at point B is denoted by 
. The straight line on which the vector is located is called the line of action of the given vector.
The concept of a vector arose in connection with the study of quantities that were characterized by a numerical value and a direction—for example, the displacement, velocity, and acceleration of a moving material point; the force acting on it; and so forth. Mechanics and physics classify vectors as free, sliding, or bound. A free vector is a vector whose value is not changed by an arbitrary, parallel displacement. An example of a free vector is the velocity of motion of a material point. A vector is called sliding if its value is not changed by any parallel displacement along its line of action. An example of a sliding vector is a force acting on an absolutely rigid body (two forces that are equal and located on the same straight line produce identical actions on an absolutely rigid body). A bound vector has its point of application fixed. For example, a force applied to a certain point of an elastic body is a bound vector. The properties of free vectors are studied in vector algebra. The general concept of a vector as an element of a so-called vector space is defined axiomatically.
REFERENCE
Il’in, V. A., and E. G. Pozniak. Analiticheskaia geometriia. Moscow, 1968.E. G. POZNIAK
Vector
(in medicine), an arthropod that transfers the causative agent of an infectious or parasitic disease between humans and animals. Insects that can act as vectors include such bloodsuckers as fleas, true lice, mosquitoes, members of the family Phlebotomidae, simuliids, and tabanids. Ticks, mites, and non-bloodsucking insects can also be vectors, for example, flies, cockroaches, and ants. A distinction is made between a biological vector, in whose body the causative agent develops and reproduces, and a mechanical vector, which is not essential to the causative agent’s life cycle. For example, the malarial plasmodium develops inside a mosquito that acts as a biological vector, while the causative agents of intestinal infections are transferred by mechanical vectors.
Bloodsucking vectors transmit a causative agent while they suck blood. For instance, malaria and yellow fever are transmitted by mosquitoes, tick-borne encephalitis by ticks, and plague by fleas. The causative agent of an infection may penetrate the human body when the excrement of bloodsucking insects falls on injured skin, as in the transmission of European typhus by lice, or when the blood of crushed vectors falls on injured skin, as in relapsing fever. To transmit an infection, a bloodsucking vector must first suck the blood of an affected human or animal, which act as sources of infection. In certain diseases, for example, malaria and European typhus, only humans can be sources, while in tick-borne encephalitides, relapsing fever, phlebotomus fever, and leishmaniases, such animals as rodents, wolves, birds, dogs, cows, and goats can be sources.
The diseases that are carried by bloodsucking vectors are called transmissible diseases. Several vectors, for example, the ticks that transfer the virus of tick-borne encephalitis, transmit viruses to their own offspring from generation to generation. A natural geographic focus of infection can arise where a reservoir of infection exists among wild animals and where the causative agents can circulate among those animals and the vectors. Non-bloodsucking insects carry causative agents on their legs and hairs and in their excrement.
Vectors are controlled by insecticides. Repellents, mosquito netting, and overalls worn during travel in areas that are infested with ticks and mites protect against bites.
V. L. VASILEVSKII