Qualitatively (or mathematically "light"), could someone describe the difference between a matrix and a tensor? I have only seen them used in the context of an undergraduate, upper level classical mechanics course, and within that context, I never understood the need to distinguish between matrices and tensors. They seemed like identical mathematical entities to me.
Just as an aside, my math background is roughly the one of a typical undergraduate physics major (minus the linear algebra).
Best Answer
Coordinate-wise, one could say that a matrix is a "square" of numbers, while a tensor is a $n$-block of numbers. But this is horrible, not insightful and even a bit wrong, since those coordinates must "change in appropriate ways" (this is part of why this is horrible).
It may be best to think as follows: given a vector space $V$, a matrix can be seen in an adequate way as a bilinear map $V^* \times V \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ (since you asked for it, I'll not enter in details. Here, $V^*$ is the dual of $V$). A tensor can be interpreted as a multilinear map $V^* \times... \times V^* \times V \times ... \times V \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ (not necessarily the same quantity of $V^*$'s and $V$'s).
Hence, a matrix is a kind of tensor. But tensors are more general.