MODULE – 1

VECTOR CALCULUS
Category – Basic Science Course
Paper Code – BS-PH 201

Dr. Madhurima Pandey

Applied Science Department
Haldia Institute of Technology, Haldia

Lecture 3 - 27/10/21
 The Del Operator ( )

 Del operator = Differential operator

 By itself it has no specific use (like d/dx by itself)
 It can be used to find 
1. Gradient of scalar  result is a vector
2. Divergence of vector  scalar
3. curl of vector  vector
 It is also named as nabla
 Gradient of a Scalar
Let =  differentiable scalar fields

*  vector quantity
Numerical Problems
GEOMETRICAL INTERPRETATION OF
GRADIENT (Additional Plug in)
GEOMETRICAL INTERPRETATION OF
GRADIENT (Additional Plug in)

Example – Electric field E = - , where  electric potential

 DIRECTIONAL DERIVATIVE
 Scalar function 

 ,  unit vector in the direction of .

 The component of along is  this is known as directional

derivative of along

 Physical Interpretation  the rate of change of at (x,y,z) in the direction

 =| |  will be maximum when  in this case the

direction of has to be along the direction of . It indicates that the
magnitude of is the largest directional derivative of .
Numerical Problems
Numerical Problems
Numerical Problems
(Additional Plug in)
Hint 
 DIVERGENCE OF VECTOR
  differentiable vector field  which
means that, it is defined and differentiable at each point in a
region of space.
 Divergence of or div or is defined as

  scalar quantity
Numerical Problems
 PHYSICAL MEANING OF
 is the measure of how much spreads out (i.e. diverges) from the
point in question 



= +ve = -ve
=0

at point A indicates a at point A indicates a at point A no

net outflow  point is net inflow  point is inflow or outflow
called “source” of the called “sink” of the field
field
 If any vector satisfies = 0, then it is called solenoidal vector .
 A field having zero divergence named as solenoidal field.
Example – magnetic field,
Numerical Problems
PHYSICAL INTERPRETATION (Additional Plug in)
 CURL OF A VECTOR
 A differentiable vector field 

 Curl or rotation of can be written as

  is a vector quantity
Numerical Problems
PHYSICAL INTERPRETATION
Rigid body R rotating through an axis
passing through O with angular velocity
be the position vector of a point P in the
rigid body.

linear velocity 
 Angular velocity of rotation = ½ of the curl of the velocity vector
 Irrotational vector  If curl of is zero, then is called
irrotational vector
 Example – Gravitational field, electrostatic field etc.
PROPOSITIONS
PROPOSITIONS

PROVE THIS
Numerical Problems
Numerical Problems
VECTOR INTEGRATION
 INTRODUCTION
 We are familiar with the integration of real-valued functions of one
variable.
 Indefinite integral or anti-derivative 

 Definite integral on a closed interval, say [a,b] is denoted by

 Ordinary Integrals of Vector Valued
Functions
 vector depending on a single scalar variable
where are assumed to be continuous in a specific interval.

is called an indefinite integral of

If there exists a vector that

then

If c is an arbitrary constant vector independent of u . The definite integral

between limits u = a and u = b can be written as
EXAMPLE