GRADIENT

In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar field is a vector field which points in the direction of the greatest rate of
increase of the scalar field, and whose magnitude is the greatest rate of change.

A generalization of the gradient for functions on a Euclidean space which have values in another Euclidean space is
the Jacobian. A further generalization for a function from one Banach space to another is the Fréchet derivative.

The gradient (or gradient vector field) of a scalar function   is denoted   or   
where   (the nabla symbol) denotes the vector differential operator, del. The notation   is also used for
the gradient. The gradient of f is defined to be the vector field whose components are the partial derivatives of f.
That is:

Here the gradient is written as a row vector, but it is often taken to be a column vector. When a function also
depends on a parameter such as time, the gradient often refers simply to the vector of its spatial derivatives
only.

The gradient of a vector   is 

or the transpose of the Jacobian matrix  .

It is a second-rank tensor.

More generally, the gradient may be defined using the exterior derivative:

Here   and   are the musical isomorphisms.

EXPRESSION IN 3-DIMENSIONAL RECTANGULAR COORDINATES

 The form of the gradient depends on the coordinate system used. In Cartesian coordinates, the above
expression expands to

which is often written using the standard vectors  :

DIVERGENCE
In vector calculus, divergence is an operator that measures the magnitude of a vector field's source or sink at a given
point, in terms of a signed scalar. More technically, the divergence represents the volume density of the
outward flux of a vector field from an infinitesimal volume around a given point. For example, consider air as it is
heated or cooled. The relevant vector field for this example is the velocity of the moving air at a point. If air is
heated in a region it will expand in all directions such that the velocity field points outward from that region.
Therefore the divergence of the velocity field in that region would have a positive value, as the region is a source. If
the air cools and contracts, the divergence is negative and the region is called a sink.

In physical terms, the divergence of a three dimensional vector field is the extent to which the vector field flow
behaves like a source or a sink at a given point. It is a local measure of its "outgoingness"—the extent to which there
is more exiting an infinitesimal region of space than entering it. If the divergence is nonzero at some point then there
must be a source or sink at that position[1]. (Note that we are imagining the vector field to be like the velocity vector
field of a fluid (in motion) when we use the terms flow, sink and so on.)

More rigorously, the divergence of a vector field F at a point p is defined as the limit of the net flow of F across the
smooth boundary of a three dimensional region V divided by the volume of V as V shrinks to p. Formally,

where |V | is the volume of V, S(V) is the boundary of V, and the integral is a surface integral with n being the
outward unit normal to that surface. The result, div F, is a function of the location p. From this definition it
also becomes explicitly visible that div F can be seen as thesource density of the flux of F.

In light of the physical interpretation, a vector field with constant zero divergence is
called incompressible or solenoidal – in this case, no net flow can occur across any closed surface.

The intuition that the sum of all sources minus the sum of all sinks should give the net flow outwards of a
region is made precise by the divergence theorem.
Application in Cartesian coordinates
Let x, y, z be a system of Cartesian coordinates on a 3-dimensional Euclidean space, and let i, j, k be the
corresponding basis of unit vectors.

The divergence of a continuously differentiable vector field F = U i + V j + W k is equal to the scalar-valued

function:

Although expressed in terms of coordinates, the result is invariant under orthogonal transformations, as the
physical interpretation suggests.

The common notation for the divergence ∇·F is a convenient mnemonic, where the dot denotes an operation
reminiscent of the dot product: take the components of ∇ (see del), apply them to the components of F, and
sum the results. As a result, this is considered an abuse of notation.

DECOMPOSITION THEOREM

It can be shown that any stationary flux v(r) which is at least two times continuously differentiable in   and
vanishes sufficiently fast for|r| → ∞ can be decomposed into an irrotational part E(r) and a source-free
part B(r). Moreover, these parts are explicitly determined by the respective source-densities (see above)
and circulation densities .

For the irrotational part one has

with
 The source-free part, B, can be similarly written: one only has to replace the scalar potential Φ(r)
by a vector potential A(r) and the terms −∇Φ by +∇×A, and finally the source-density div v by the
circulation-density ∇×v.

This "decomposition theorem" is in fact a by-product of the stationary case of electrodynamics. It

is a special case of the more general Helmholtz decomposition which works in dimensions greater
than three as well.

PROPERTIES

The following properties can all be derived from the ordinary differentiation rules of calculus. Most importantly, the
divergence is a linear operator, i.e.

for all vector fields F and G and all real numbers a and b.

There is a product rule of the following type: if   is a scalar valued function and F is a vector field, then

or in more suggestive notation

Another product rule for the cross product of two vector fields F and G in three dimensions
involves the curl and reads as follows:

or

The Laplacian of a scalar field is the divergence of the field's gradient.

The divergence of the curl of any vector field (in three dimensions) is equal to zero:

If a vector field F with zero divergence is defined on a ball in R3, then there

exists some vector field G on the ball with F = curl(G). For regions in R3 more
complicated than this, the latter statement might be false (see Poincaré lemma).
The degree of failure of the truth of the statement, measured by the homology of
the chain complex
 (where the first map is the gradient, the second is the curl, the third is the
divergence) serves as a nice quantification of the complicatedness of the
underlying region U. These are the beginnings and main motivations of de
Rham cohomology.

CURL

In vector calculus, the curl (or rotor) is a vector operator that describes the infinitesimal rotation of a 3-

dimensional vector field. At every point in the field, the curl is represented by a vector. The attributes of this vector
(length and direction) characterize the rotation at that point.

The direction of the curl is the axis of rotation, as determined by the right-hand rule, and the magnitude of the curl is
the magnitude of rotation. If the vector field represents the flow velocity of a moving fluid, then the curl is
the circulation density of the fluid. A vector field whose curl is zero is called irrotational. The curl is a form
of differentiation for vector fields. The corresponding form of the fundamental theorem of calculus is Stokes'
theorem, which relates the surface integral of the curl of a vector field to the line integral of the vector field around
the boundary curve.

The alternative terminology rotor or rotational and alternative notations rot F and ∇×F are often used (the former
especially in many European countries, the latter using the del operator and the cross product) forcurl and curl F.

Unlike the gradient and divergence, curl does not generalize as simply to other dimensions; some generalizations are
possible, but only in three dimensions is the geometrically defined curl of a vector field again a vector field. This is a
similar phenomenon as in the 3 dimensional cross product, and the connection is reflected in the notation ∇× for the
curl.

For the equation in Cartesian coordinates, see Curl (mathematics)#Usage.

The curl of a vector field F, denoted curl F or ∇×F, at a point is defined in terms of its projection onto various lines
through the point. If   is any unit vector, the projection of the curl of F onto   is defined to be the limiting value of
a closed line integral in a plane orthogonal to   as the path used in the integral becomes infinitesimally close to the
point, divided by the area enclosed.
As such, the curl operator maps C1 functions from R3 to R3 to C0 functions from R3 to R3.

Convention for vector orientation of the line integral

Implicitly, curl is defined by

Here   is a line integral along the boundary of the area in question, and A is the magnitude of the area.
If   is an outward pointing in-plane normal, whereas   is the unit-vector perpendicular to the plane (see
caption at right), then the orientation of C is chosen so that a vector   tangent to C is positively oriented if and
only if   forms a positively oriented basis for R3 (right-hand rule).

The above formula means that the curl of a vector field is defined as the infinitesimal area-density of
the circulation of that field. To this definition fit naturally (i) the Kelvin-Stokes theorem, as a global formula
corresponding to the definition, and (ii) the following "easy to memorize" definition of the curl in orthogonal
curvilinear coordinates, e.g. in cartesian coordinates, spherical, or cylindrical, or even elliptical or parabolical
coordinates:

If (x1,x2,x3) are the Cartesian coordinates and (u1,u2,u3) are the curvilinear coordinates,

then   is the length of the coordinate vector corresponding to  . The remaining two
components of curl result from cyclic index-permutation: 3,1,2 → 1,2,3 → 2,3,1.

USAGE
In practice, the above definition is rarely used because in virtually all cases, the curl operator can be applied using
some set of curvilinear coordinates, for which simpler representations have been derived.
The notation ∇×F has its origins in the similarities to the 3 dimensional cross product, and it is useful as
a mnemonic in Cartesian coordinates if we take ∇ as a vector differential operator del. Such notation
involving operators is common in physics and algebra. If certain coordinate systems are used, for instance, polar-
toroidal coordinates (common in plasma physics) using the notation ∇×F will yield an incorrect result.

Expanded in Cartesian coordinates (see: Del in cylindrical and spherical coordinates for spherical and cylindrical

coordinate representations), ∇×F is, for F composed of [Fx, Fy, Fz]:

where i, j, and k are the unit vectors for the x-, y-, and z-axes, respectively. This expands as follows:[4]

Although expressed in terms of coordinates, the result is invariant under proper rotations of the
coordinate axes but the result inverts under reflection.

In a general coordinate system, the curl is given by[2]

where ε denotes the Levi-Civita symbol, the metric tensor is used to lower the index on F, and
the Einstein summation convention implies that repeated indices are summed over. Equivalently,

where ek are the coordinate vector fields. Equivalently, using the exterior derivative, the curl
can be expressed as:

Here   and   are the musical isomorphisms, and   is the Hodge dual. This formula
shows how to calculate the curl of F in any coordinate system, and how to extend the
curl to any oriented three dimensional Riemannian manifold. Since this depends on a
choice of orientation, curl is a chiral operation. In other words, if the orientation is
reversed, then the direction of the curl is also reversed.

DEL OPERATOR
In vector calculus, del is a vector differential operator, usually represented by the nabla symbol  . When applied to
a function defined on a one-dimensional domain, it denotes its standard derivative as defined in calculus. When
applied to a field (a function defined on a multi-dimensional domain), del may denote the gradient (slope) of a scalar
field, the divergence of a vector field, or the curl (rotational) of a vector field, depending on the way it is applied.

Strictly speaking, del is not a specific operator, but rather a convenient mathematical notation for those three
operators, that makes many equations easier to write and remember. The del symbol can be interpreted as a vector
of partial derivative operators, and its three possible meanings—gradient, divergence, and curl—can be formally
viewed as the scalar product, dot product, and cross product, respectively, of the del "operator" with the field. These
formal products may not commute with other operators or products.

n the three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system R3 with coordinates (x, y, z), del is defined in terms of partial
derivative operators as

where   are the unit vectors in the respective coordinate directions.

Though this page chiefly treats del in three dimensions, this definition can be generalized to the n-
dimensional Euclidean space Rn. In the Cartesian coordinate system with coordinates (x1, x2, ..., xn), del is:

where   is the standard basis in this space.

More compactly, using the Einstein summation notation, del is written as

Del can also be expressed in other coordinate systems, see for example del in cylindrical and
spherical coordinates.

DIRECTIONAL DERIVATIVE
In mathematics, the directional derivative of a multivariate differentiable function along a given vector V at a
given point P intuitively represents the instantaneous rate of change of the function, moving through P, in the
direction of V. It therefore generalizes the notion of a partial derivative, in which the direction is always taken
parallel to one of the coordinate axes.

The directional derivative is a special case of the Gâteaux derivative.

The directional derivative of a scalar function

 along a unit vector

is the function defined by the limit

(See other notations below.) If the function f is differentiable at  , then the directional derivative
exists along any unit vector   and one has

where the   on the right denotes the gradient and   is the Euclidean inner product. At any
point  , the directional derivative of f intuitively represents the rate of change in f along   
at the point  .

One sometimes permits non-unit vectors, allowing the directional derivative to be taken in
the direction of  , where   is any nonzero vector. In this case, one must modify the
definitions to account for the fact that   may not be normalized, so one has

or in case f is differentiable at  ,

Such notation for non-unit vectors (undefined for the zero vector), however, is
incompatible with notation used elsewhere in the rest of mathematics, where the
space of derivations in a derivation algebra is expected to be a vector space.

Directional derivatives can be also denoted by:

 RESEARCH
IN
VECTOR ANALYSIS

SUBMITTED BY: SUBMITTED TO:

MELANIE S. GONZALES ENGR. ERICSON A. MANDAYO
3-ECE-1