Tensor

A tensor is an algebraic object that describes a multilinear relationship between sets of algebraic objects associated with a vector space, mapping between vectors, scalars and other tensors; defined independent of any basis, a tensor's components in a given coordinate system form an array that can be thought of as a high-dimensional matrix. Tensors are important throughout physics, providing a concise framework for mechanics, electrodynamics and general relativity, and a tensor field assigns a different tensor to each point of an object, such as the varying stress within it. Tullio Levi-Civita and Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro popularized tensors in 1900, continuing the earlier work of Bernhard Riemann and Elwin Bruno Christoffel, enabling an alternative formulation of the intrinsic differential geometry of a manifold. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/