Because a vector contains information about the direction. A direction, at any particular position is the tangent to the curve and this, by definition, must be straight.
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Seven.
The status to Hilbert's problem remains unresolved.
If you translate (move without rotation) a copy of the line towards the curve, the first point where the line touches the curve (the tangent to the curve with the slope of the original line) will be the point on the curve closest to the line. Draw a connecting line from this tangent point to the original line, intersecting that original line at right angles. Measure the connecting segment. It is the shortest distance. Vector analysis will give a mathematically strict solution, I do not have the ability to explain this in sufficient detail.
Yes, a vector can be represented in terms of a unit vector which is in the same direction as the vector. it will be the unit vector in the direction of the vector times the magnitude of the vector.
The zero vector is both parallel and perpendicular to any other vector. V.0 = 0 means zero vector is perpendicular to V and Vx0 = 0 means zero vector is parallel to V.