Which of the following is an example of a scalar product?

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The correct answer is the example where one vector is dotted with another vector, commonly represented as Arrow A dot Arrow B. This operation is known as the scalar product or dot product, and it produces a scalar value, unlike the other choices which represent vector quantities.

In physics, scalar products take two vectors and return a single scalar quantity resulting from the multiplication of the magnitudes of the vectors and the cosine of the angle between them. This scalar type of measurement is crucial when evaluating quantities such as work done, which is determined as the dot product of force and displacement vectors.

In contrast, force, acceleration, and velocity are all vector quantities, meaning they have both magnitude and direction. While these vectors can interact with one another through operations like addition or subtraction, they do not yield scalar results on their own unless a scalar product is performed. Thus, the fourth option accurately represents the scalar product concept in vector mathematics.

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