x, y, z ctt

dr
grad

Physical meaning:grad dr is the local variation of

along dr. Particularly, grad is perpendicular to the line =
ctt.
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Gradient operator

Suppose , we have a function of three variables- say,

the temperature T(x, y, z) in a room.
For the temperature distribution we see how a scalar
would vary as we moved off in an arbitrary direction.
Now a derivative is supposed to tell us how fast the
function varies, if we move a little distance.

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If T(r) is a scalar field, its gradient is defined in Cartesian

coordinates by

T
T
T
grad T
i
j
k
x
y
z
It is usual to define the vector operator
which is called del. We can write

i j k
y
z
x

grad T T

Without thinking too hard, notice that grad T tends to

point in the direction of greatest change of the scalar
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field T.

The significance of the gradient:

A theorem on partial derivatives states that
T
T
T

dT
dx

dy

dz

x
z
y
This rule tells us how T changes when we alter all three
variables by the infinitesimal amounts dx, dy, dz. Change in T
can be written as,
T
T
T
dT
i
j
k dx i dy j dz k
y
z
x

T d l

The conclusion is that, the RHS of above equation is the small

change in temperature T when we move by dl.
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If we divide the above eq. by dl

We get

dT d l
T
dl
dl

d l
but
is a unit vector in the directionof d l .

dl

So , we can conclude that, grad T has the property that the rate
of change of T w.r.t. distance in any direction is the projection
of grad T onto that direction .
That is

dT
in directionof
dl

^

a T a

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