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Chapter 9 Review Questions and Problems 409

48 CALCULUTION OF CURL 14. PROJECT. Useful Formulas for the Curl. Assuming
Find curl v for v given with respect to right-handed sufficient differentiability, show that
Cartesian coordinates. Show the details of your work. (a) curl (u  v)  curl u  curl v
4. v  [2y 2, 5x, 0] (b) div (curl v)  0
5. v  xyz [x, y, z] (c) curl ( f v)  (grad f ) v  f curl v
6. v  (x 2  y 2  z 2)3>2 [x, y, z] (d) curl (grad f )  0
7. v  [0, 0, ex sin y] (e) div (u v)  v curl u  u curl v
8. v  [ez , ex , ey ]
2 2 2

1520 DIV AND CURL

913 FLUID FLOW With respect to right-handed coordinates, let u  [y, z, x],
Let v be the velocity vector of a steady fluid flow. Is the v  [ yz, zx, xy], f  xyz, and g  x  y  z. Find the given
flow irrotational? Incompressible? Find the streamlines (the expressions. Check your result by a formula in Proj. 14
paths of the particles). Hint. See the answers to Probs. 9 if applicable.
and 11 for a determination of a path. 15. curl (u  v), curl v
9. v  [0, 3z 2, 0] 16. curl (gv)
10. v  [sec x, csc x, 0] 17. v curl u, u curl v, u curl u
11. v  [ y, 2x, 0] 18. div (u v)
12. v  [y, x, p] 19. curl (gu  v), curl (gu)
13. v  [x, y, z] 20. div (grad ( fg))

CHAPTER 9 REVIEW QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS

1. What is a vector? A vector function? A vector field? A
scalar? A scalar function? A scalar field? Give examples.
2. What is an inner product, a vector product, a scalar triple
product? What applications motivate these products?
3. What are right-handed and left-handed coordinates?
When is this distinction important?
4. When is a vector product the zero vector? What is
orthogonality?
5. How is the derivative of a vector function defined?
What is its significance in geometry and mechanics?
6. If r(t) represents a motion, what are r r (t), r r (t) , r s (t),
and r s (t) ?
7. Can a moving body have constant speed but variable
velocity? Nonzero acceleration?
8. What do you know about directional derivatives? Their
relation to the gradient?
9. Write down the definitions and explain the significance
of grad, div, and curl.
10. Granted sufficient differentiability, which of the
following expressions make sense? f curl v, v curl f,
u v, u v w, f v, f (v w), u (v w),
v curl v, div ( f v), curl ( f v), and curl ( f v).
1119 ALGEBRAIC OPERATIONS FOR VECTORS
Let a  [4, 7, 0], b  [3, 1, 5], c  [6, 2, 0], and d 
[1, 2, 8]. Calculate the following expressions. Try to
make a sketch.
11. a c, 3b 8d, 24d b, a a
12. a c, b d, d b, a a
13. b c, c b, c c, c c
14. 5(a b) c, a (5b c), (5a b c), 5(a b) c
15. 6(a b) d, a 6(b d), 2a 3b d
16. (1> a )a, (1> b )b, a b> b , a b> a
17. (a b d), (b a d), (b d a)
18. a  b , a  b
19. a b  b a, (a c) c, a b
20. Commutativity. When is u v  v u? When is
u v  v u?
21. Resultant, equilibrium. Find u such that u and a, b,
c, d above and u are in equilibrium.
22. Resultant. Find the most general v such that the resultant
of v, a, b, c (see above) is parallel to the yz-plane.
23. Angle. Find the angle between a and c. Between b and
d. Sketch a and c.
24. Planes. Find the angle between the two planes
P1: 4x  y  3z  12 and P2: x  2y  4z  4. Make
a sketch.
25. Work. Find the work done by q  [5, 2, 0] in the
displacement from (1, 1, 0) to (4, 3, 0).
26. Component. When is the component of a vector v in
the direction of a vector w equal to the component of
w in the direction of v?
27. Component. Find the component of v  [4, 7, 0] in
the direction of w  [2, 2, 0]. Sketch it.
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410 CHAP. 9 Vector Differential Calculus. Grad, Div, Curl

28. Moment. When is the moment of a force equal to zero? 3240 GRAD, DIV, CURL, 2, Dvf
29. Moment. A force p  [4, 2, 0] is acting in a line Let f  xy  yz, v  [2y, 2z, 4x  z], and w  [3z 2,
through (2, 3, 0). Find its moment vector about the x 2  y 2, y 2]. Find:
center (5, 1, 0) of a wheel.
32. grad f and f grad f at P: (2, 7, 0)
30. Velocity, acceleration. Find the velocity, speed,
33. div v, div w 34. curl v, curl w
and acceleration of the motion given by r (t)  [3
cos t, 3 sin t, 4t] (t  time) at the point P : (3> 12, 35. div (grad f ), 2f, 2(xyf )
3> 12, p). 36. (curl w) v at (4, 0, 2) 37. grad (div w)
31. Tetrahedron. Find the volume if the vertices are 38. Dv f at P: (1, 1, 2) 39. Dw f at P: (3, 0, 2)
(0, 0, 0), (3, 1, 2), (2, 4, 0), (5, 4, 0). 40. v ((curl w) v)

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 9
Vector Differential Calculus. Grad, Div, Curl

All vectors of the form a  [a1, a2, a3]  a1i  a2 j  a3k constitute the real
vector space R 3 with componentwise vector addition

(1) [a1, a2, a3]  [b1, b2, b3]  [a1  b1, a2  b2, a3  b3]

and componentwise scalar multiplication (c a scalar, a real number)

(2) c[a1, a2, a3]  [ca1, ca2, ca3] (Sec. 9.1).

For instance, the resultant of forces a and b is the sum a  b.

The inner product or dot product of two vectors is defined by

(3) a b  a b cos g  a1b1  a2b2  a3b3 (Sec. 9.2)

where g is the angle between a and b. This gives for the norm or length a of a

(4) a  1a a  2a 21  a 22  a 23

as well as a formula for g. If a b  0, we call a and b orthogonal. The dot product

is suggested by the work W  p d done by a force p in a displacement d.
The vector product or cross product v  a b is a vector of length

(5) a b  a b sin g (Sec. 9.3)

and perpendicular to both a and b such that a, b, v form a right-handed triple. In

terms of components with respect to right-handed coordinates,

i j k
(6) a b  4 a1 a2 a3 4 (Sec. 9.3).

b1 b2 b3
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Summary of Chapter 9 411

The vector product is suggested, for instance, by moments of forces or by rotations.

CAUTION! This multiplication is anticommutative, a b  b a, and is not
associative.
An (oblique) box with edges a, b, c has volume equal to the absolute value of
the scalar triple product

(7) (a b c)  a (b c)  (a b) c.

Sections 9.49.9 extend differential calculus to vector functions

v (t)  [v1(t), v2(t), v3(t)]  v1(t)i  v2(t)j  v3(t)k

and to vector functions of more than one variable (see below). The derivative of
v(t) is

dv v(t  t)  v(t)
(8) vr   lim  [v1r , v2r , v3r ]  v1r i  v2r j  v3r k.
dt t : 0 t

Differentiation rules are as in calculus. They imply (Sec. 9.4)

(u v) r  u r v  u v r , (u v) r  u r v  u v r .

Curves C in space represented by the position vector r(t) have r r (t) as a tangent
vector (the velocity in mechanics when t is time), r r (s) (s arc length, Sec. 9.5) as
the unit tangent vector, and r s (s)  as the curvature (the acceleration in
mechanics).
Vector functions v (x, y, z)  [v1 (x, y, z), v2 (x, y, z), v3 (x, y, z)] represent vector
fields in space. Partial derivatives with respect to the Cartesian coordinates x, y, z
are obtained componentwise, for instance,

0v 0v1 0v2 0v3 0v1 0v2 0v3

B , , R i j k (Sec. 9.6).
0x 0x 0x 0x 0x 0x 0x

The gradient of a scalar function f is

0f 0f 0f
(9) grad f  f  B , , R (Sec. 9.7).
0x 0y 0z

The directional derivative of f in the direction of a vector a is

df 1
(10) Da f   a f (Sec. 9.7).
ds a

The divergence of a vector function v is

0v1 0v2 0v3

(11) div v   v    . (Sec. 9.8).
0x 0y 0z
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412 CHAP. 9 Vector Differential Calculus. Grad, Div, Curl

The curl of v is

i j k

0 0 0
(12) curl v   v  5 5 (Sec. 9.9)
0x 0y 0z

v1 v2 v3

or minus the determinant if the coordinates are left-handed.

Some basic formulas for grad, div, curl are (Secs. 9.79.9)

( fg)  f g  gf
(13)
( f>g)  (1>g2)(gf  f g)

div ( f v)  f div v  v f
(14)
div ( f g)  f 2g  f g

2f  div (f )

(15)
2( fg)  g2f  2f g  f 2g

curl ( f v)  f v  f curl v
(16)
div (u v)  v curl u  u curl v

curl (f )  0
(17)
div (curl v)  0.
For grad, div, curl, and  in curvilinear coordinates see App. A3.4.
2