Effective mass (solid-state physics) from both sides gives where is the th element of , is the th element of , and are the th and th elements of , respectively, and is the total energy of the particle according to the Planck–Einstein relation. The index is contracted by the use of Einstein notation (there is an implicit summation over ). Since Newton's second law uses the inertial mass (not the gravitational mass), we can identify the inverse of this mass in the equation above as the tensor This tensor expresses the change in group velocity due to a change in crystal momentum. Its
Dot product identity, also known as "Lagrange's formula" may be remembered as "BAC minus CAB", keeping in mind which vectors are dotted together. This formula finds application in simplifying vector calculations in physics. In physics, vector magnitude is a scalar in the physical sense, i.e. a physical quantity independent of the coordinate system, expressed as the product of a numerical value and a physical unit, not just a number. The dot product is also a scalar in this sense, given by the formula, independent of the coordinate system. Examples include: For vectors with complex entries, using the given definition of the dot