16 Vector Calculus

Copyright © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

16.1 Vector Fields

Copyright © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Vector Fields
The vectors in Figure 1 are air velocity vectors that indicate
the wind speed and direction at points 10 m above the
surface elevation in the San Francisco Bay area.

We see at a glance from the largest arrows in part (a) that

the greatest wind speeds at that time occurred as the winds
entered the bay across the Golden Gate Bridge. Part (b)
shows the very different wind pattern 12 hours earlier.

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Vector Fields

Velocity vector fields showing San Francisco Bay wind patterns

Figure 1

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Vector Fields
Associated with every point in the air we can imagine a
wind velocity vector. This is an example of a velocity vector
field.

Other examples of velocity vector fields are illustrated in

Figure 2: ocean currents and flow past an airfoil.

Velocity vector fields

Figure 2 5
Vector Fields
Another type of vector field, called a force field, associates
a force vector with each point in a region. An example is
the gravitational force field.

In general, a vector field is a function whose domain is a

set of points in (or ) and whose range is a set of
vectors in V2 (or V3).

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Vector Fields
The best way to picture a vector field is to draw the arrow
representing the vector F (x, y) starting at the point (x, y).

Of course, it’s impossible to do this for all points (x, y), but
we can gain a reasonable impression of F by doing it for a
few representative points in D as in Figure 3.

Vector field on
Figure 3
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Vector Fields
Since F (x, y) is a two-dimensional vector, we can write it in
terms of its component functions P and Q as follows:

F (x, y) = P (x, y) i + Q (x, y) j = P (x, y), Q (x, y)

or, for short, F=Pi+Qj

Notice that P and Q are scalar functions of two variables

and are sometimes called scalar fields to distinguish them
from vector fields.

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Vector Fields
A vector field F on is pictured in Figure 4.

Vector field on
Figure 4

We can express it in terms of its component functions

P, Q, and R as

F (x, y, z) = P (x, y, z) i + Q (x, y, z) j + R (x, y, z) k

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Vector Fields
As with the vector functions, we can define continuity of
vector fields and show that F is continuous if and only if its
component functions P, Q, and R are continuous.

We sometimes identify a point (x, y, z) with its position

vector x = x, y, z and write F (x) instead of F (x, y, z).

Then F becomes a function that assigns a vector F (x) to a

vector x.

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Example 1
A vector field on is defined by F (x, y) = –y i + x j.
Describe F by sketching some of the vectors F (x, y) as in
Figure 3.

Vector field on
Figure 3

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Example 1 – Solution
Since F (1, 0) = j, we draw the vector j = 0, 1 starting at
the point (1, 0) in Figure 5.

F (x, y) = –y i + x j
Figure 5

Since F (0, 1) = –i, we draw the vector –1, 0 with starting

point (0, 1). 12
Example 1 – Solution cont’d

Continuing in this way, we calculate several other

representative values of F (x, y) in the table and draw the
corresponding vectors to represent the vector field in
Figure 5.

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Example 1 – Solution cont’d

It appears from Figure 5 that each arrow is tangent to a

circle with center the origin.

F (x, y) = –y i + x j
Figure 5
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Example 1 – Solution cont’d

To confirm this, we take the dot product of the position

vector x = x i + y j with the vector F (x) = F (x, y):

x  F(x) = (x i + y j)  (–y i + x j)

= –xy + yx

=0

This shows that F(x, y) is perpendicular to the position

vector x, y and is therefore tangent to a circle with center
the origin and radius
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Example 1 – Solution cont’d

Notice also that

so the magnitude of the vector F (x, y) is equal to the radius

of the circle.

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Example 3
Imagine a fluid flowing steadily along a pipe and let
V (x, y, z) be the velocity vector at a point (x, y, z).

Then V assigns a vector to each point (x, y, z) in a certain

domain E (the interior of the pipe) and so V is a vector field
on called a velocity field.

A possible velocity field is illustrated in Figure 13.

Velocity field in fluid flow

Figure 13 17
Example 3 cont’d

The speed at any given point is indicated by the length of

the arrow.

Velocity fields also occur in other areas of physics.

For instance, the vector field in Example 1 could be used

as the velocity field describing the counterclockwise
rotation of a wheel.

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Example 4
Newton’s Law of Gravitation states that the magnitude of
the gravitational force between two objects with masses
m and M is

where r is the distance between the objects and G is the

gravitational constant. (This is an example of an inverse
square law.)

Let’s assume that the object with mass M is located at the

origin in . (For instance, M could be the mass of the
earth and the origin would be at its center.) 19
Example 4 cont’d

Let the position vector of the object with mass m be

x = x, y, z. Then r = | x |, so r2 = | x |2.

The gravitational force exerted on this second object acts

toward the origin, and the unit vector in this direction is

Therefore the gravitational force acting on the object at

x = x, y, z is

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Example 4 cont’d

[Physicists often use the notation r instead of x for the

position vector, so you may see Formula 3 written in the
form F = –(mMG/r3)r.]

The function given by Equation 3 is an example of a vector

field, called the gravitational field, because it associates a
vector [the force F (x)] with every point x in space.

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Example 4 cont’d

Formula 3 is a compact way of writing the gravitational

field, but we can also write it in terms of its component
functions by using the facts that x = x i + y j + z k and
|x| = :

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Example 4 cont’d

The gravitational field F is pictured in Figure 14.

Gravitational force field

Figure 14

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Example 5
Suppose an electric charge Q is located at the origin.
According to Coulomb’s Law, the electric force F(x) exerted
by this charge on a charge q located at a point (x, y, z) with
position vector x = x, y, z is

where ε is a constant (that depends on the units used).

For like charges, we have qQ > 0 and the force is repulsive;

for unlike charges, we have qQ < 0 and the force is
attractive.
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Example 5 cont’d

Notice the similarity between Formulas 3 and 4. Both vector

fields are examples of force fields.

Instead of considering the electric force F, physicists often

consider the force per unit charge:

Then E is a vector field on called the electric field of Q.

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Gradient Fields

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Gradient Fields
If f is a scalar function of two variables, recall that its
gradient f (or grad f ) is defined by

f (x, y) = fx(x, y) i + fy(x, y) j

Therefore f is really a vector field on and is called a

gradient vector field.

Likewise, if f is a scalar function of three variables, its

gradient is a vector field on given by

f (x, y, z) = fx(x, y, z) i + fy(x, y, z) j + fz(x, y, z) k

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Example 6
Find the gradient vector field of f (x, y) = x2y – y3. Plot the
gradient vector field together with a contour map of f. How
are they related?

Solution:
The gradient vector field is given by

28
Example 6 – Solution cont’d

Figure 15 shows a contour map of f with the gradient vector

field.

Figure 15

Notice that the gradient vectors are perpendicular to the

level curves. 29
Example 6 – Solution cont’d

Notice also that the gradient vectors are long where the
level curves are close to each other and short where the
curves are farther apart.

That’s because the length of the gradient vector is the

value of the directional derivative of f and closely spaced
level curves indicate a steep graph.

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Gradient Fields
A vector field F is called a conservative vector field if it is
the gradient of some scalar function, that is, if there exists a
function f such that F = f .

In this situation f is called a potential function for F.

Not all vector fields are conservative, but such fields do

arise frequently in physics.

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Gradient Fields
For example, the gravitational field F in Example 4 is
conservative because if we define

then

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