In science, there are two primary types of numerical quantities.
Scalars are numerical quantities that can be described with a single number.
Temperature, mass, and pressure are examples of scalars. In computational science, scalars are nearly always rudimentary to implement and need not be discussed further. However, when describing other quantities, it is often necessary to express both a magnitude and a direction. An effective way of expressing such quantities is through the language of vectors . A vector can be thought of as a collection of scalars in which each scalar corresponds to a numerical description of a different dimension of the given quantity.