AOA; scalar or vector, resolved.

Hi all,

In a tangent many times removed from the original "Who does flight plans?"
thread, I became entangled in an argument about whether "AOA was a scalar
or a vector". Not finding an adequate resource off-line that clearly
resolved the issues involved in assigning either term as a valid math
definition, I went to the alt.math newsgroup and posed what I thought was
the essence of the problem that lead to my confusion. Thanks to the
discussion that followed, I now understand the reason for my confusion
over this matter. Anyone interested in the details can find the discussion
there.

In the end, it was D. Watland's response that provided the clarity that I
needed to put this to rest. In our discussion, we were apparently speaking
in jargon, not math terms. If we had said, "Angle of Attack is a
_variable_ whose value is expressed as a real number...", there would
probably have been no argument.

My apologies to all whom I said were "wrong" about calling AOA a scalar
instead of a vector.

Best regards and blue skies!

Neil