{ "model": { "rank": 10355, "code": "thing-q181175", "model_id": "vr.tr.scalar-quantity", "name": "scalar quantity", "purpose": "Let an agent distinguish scalar quantities from vectors and tensors, and handle them with units and values.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.QLT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q181175/", "tier": 2, "score": 45, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "electric surface current", "charge density of electrons", "luminous exitance", "apparent impedance", "angular speed", "magnetomotive force", "surface density of electric charge", "enstrophy", "mass flow rate", "geopotential", "propagation coefficient", "gravitational potential", "magnetic scalar potential", "wavenumber", "loss angle", "modulus of impedance", "electric current", "angular wavenumber", "hydrodynamical helicity", "coercivity", "energy flux density", "headway", "specific impulse", "electric charge density", "linear density of electric charge", "electric potential difference", "total current", "electromagnetic energy density", "magnetic tension", "current linkage", "permeance", "voltage-current phase difference", "wavenumber in vacuum", "displacement current", "bending moment of force", "magnetic reluctance", "luminous energy", "tangential force", "mass change rate", "liquid phase mass flow rate" ], "aliasCount": 76, "merged": 77, "knownIn": 45, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q181175", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q181175", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T06:13:09Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q181175", "registryId": "vr.tr.scalar-quantity", "name": "scalar quantity", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.QLT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q181175/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.scalar-quantity", "name": "scalar quantity", "purpose": "Let an agent distinguish scalar quantities from vectors and tensors, and handle them with units and values.", "definition": "A physical quantity described by magnitude alone, without direction, such as mass, temperature, energy, speed or electric charge density.", "what_it_is_for": "Describing magnitudes in physics and engineering.", "affordances": [ "measure and compute it", "add and compare values", "convert units", "combine with vectors in formulas" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Magnitude only", "Unaffected by rotation of coordinates", "Contrasts with vectors such as force", "Some quantities are pseudoscalars" ], "appearance": "A number with a unit.", "visual_identification": [ "Values with units and no direction", "Symbols without vector arrows", "Examples such as angular speed or luminous exitance" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "mechanical scalars: mass, energy, speed", "thermal scalars: temperature", "electrical scalars: charge, potential", "photometric scalars: luminous exitance" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "physical quantity", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is confused with", "target": "vector quantity", "why": "direction" }, { "relation": "has kind", "target": "energy, length, volume", "why": "examples" }, { "relation": "is measured in", "target": "SI units", "why": "units" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "ISO 80000 quantities and units", "SI Brochure" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Treating vectors as scalars", "Unit errors" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "What it is.", "rationale": "Scalars have magnitude only.", "layers": [ { "id": "quantity", "name": "Quantity", "description": "Which quantity.", "findings": [ { "id": "quantity-finding", "name": "Quantity", "description": "The quantity.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which scalar quantity is this?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "What is its SI unit?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "nature", "name": "Nature", "description": "Scalar or not.", "findings": [ { "id": "nature-finding", "name": "Nature", "description": "Scalar status.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is it truly scalar, or a component of a vector?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Is it a pseudoscalar?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "measurement", "name": "Measurement", "description": "How measured.", "rationale": "Measurements need methods.", "layers": [ { "id": "method", "name": "Method", "description": "Instruments.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-finding", "name": "Method", "description": "Method.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is it measured?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "With what uncertainty?", "kind": "measurement" } ] } ] }, { "id": "units", "name": "Units", "description": "Conversion.", "findings": [ { "id": "units-finding", "name": "Units", "description": "Units.", "questions": [ { "text": "In which unit is it given?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "How does it convert?", "kind": "measurement" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "use", "name": "Use", "description": "In calculations.", "rationale": "Scalars combine with other quantities.", "layers": [ { "id": "operations", "name": "Operations", "description": "Arithmetic.", "findings": [ { "id": "operations-finding", "name": "Operations", "description": "Valid operations.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which operations are valid with this quantity?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Can it be added to others?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "formulas", "name": "Formulas", "description": "With vectors.", "findings": [ { "id": "formulas-finding", "name": "Formulas", "description": "Role in formulas.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does it appear in formulas with vectors?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the dimension consistent?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "communication", "name": "Communication", "description": "Clear values.", "rationale": "Values must be clear.", "layers": [ { "id": "reporting", "name": "Reporting", "description": "Value and unit.", "findings": [ { "id": "reporting-finding", "name": "Reporting", "description": "Reporting.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is the value reported with unit and uncertainty?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "From which source?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "education", "name": "Education", "description": "Explaining.", "findings": [ { "id": "education-finding", "name": "Explanation", "description": "Explanation.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can the scalar-vector difference be explained?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "What example helps?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should scalar status be a property of quantity entries?", "How should pseudoscalars be treated?", "The registry entry has merged aliases such as magnetomotive force; should they be linked as instances?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a scalar quantity, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent distinguish scalar quantities from vectors and tensors, and handle them with units and values.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: electric surface current, charge density of electrons, luminous exitance, apparent impedance, angular speed, magnetomotive force, surface density of electric charge, enstrophy, mass flow rate, geopotential, propagation coefficient, gravitational potential.", "77 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 45 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a scalar quantity, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "electric surface current", "charge density of electrons", "luminous exitance", "apparent impedance", "angular speed", "magnetomotive force", "surface density of electric charge", "enstrophy", "mass flow rate", "geopotential", "propagation coefficient", "gravitational potential" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 45 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 77 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one scalar quantity from another, and a scalar quantity from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a scalar quantity, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a scalar quantity, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a scalar quantity is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a scalar quantity, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a scalar quantity, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a scalar quantity is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a scalar quantity sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a scalar quantity, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a scalar quantity, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a scalar quantity is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a scalar quantity from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a scalar quantity, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a scalar quantity, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a scalar quantity is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a scalar quantity passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a scalar quantity between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a scalar quantity, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a scalar quantity, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a scalar quantity is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a scalar quantity, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a scalar quantity is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a scalar quantity, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a scalar quantity, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a scalar quantity is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What scalar quantity is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of scalar quantity are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is scalar quantity operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of scalar quantity and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of scalar quantity?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as scalar quantity?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a scalar quantity came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a scalar quantity and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a scalar quantity, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a scalar quantity, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a scalar quantity is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a scalar quantity is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a scalar quantity, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a scalar quantity, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a scalar quantity is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }