Review of Vector Algebra and Calculus.

Vectors:
▪ Quantities that possess both magnitude and direction
▪ Directed line segments
B The magnitude of the vector is given by , correspondingly,
the length of the line segment is proportional to the magnitude of
the vector.
A

Vector addition

Multiplication of a vector by a scalar alters only its

magnitude
 c is a constant
Vector Multiplication:

Scalar (dot) product: The scalar product of two vectors and is defined as

Note:

Vector (Cross) product: The cross product of two vectors and is defined as

Note:
Magnitude of the cross product of two vectors is equal to the area of the parallelogram

Area of the parallelogram is then twice the area of the above triangle.

Triple Product:

Given three vectors and , the scalar triple product

of the three vectors is given by,

and gives the area of the parallelopiped.

Note:

Vector Triple Product

Given three vectors and , the vector triple product of the three vectors is given by,

A vector can always be written in terms of its components in a chosen coordinate system. In
cartesian system, a position vector is given by,

where and are the unit vectors along the x- y- and z-axes of this
coordinate system.

The unit vector is given by

Any vector can always be expressed in terms of its components in a given coordinate system.
In a cartesian coordinate system, a vector can be written in terms of its x, y and z
components as

For any two vectors and where,

and
The last of the equations (i.e. 3 above) is written conveniently in a determinant form as

In this course, we will regularly use a special vector called the separation vector. Very
often, we are calculating the fields and potentials due to charges or currents. The
coordinate of the charge or current distribution referred to the origin of a given coordinate
system is called the “source coordinate” and is referred to as . The coordinates where
the measurement of the field or potential is made is called the reference coordinate and is
written as .

Then the separation vector is refined as follows:

with,

Coordinate Systems used in EM Theory:

Cartesian, Spherical Polar and Cylindrical Coordinate systems. A generalized

discussion of the coordinate systems is undertaken later.
Differential Vector Calculus

Scalar Field: A scalar field is a function that gives a single value of some variable at every
point in space.

Example:
Vector Field: A vector field is a vector function that gives a vector at every point in space.

Given such scalar and vector fields, what operations can be done?

Gradient of a Scalar Field

The gradient of a scalar field , given by is a vector field whose magnitude gives the
rate of change and whose direction gives the greatest rate of increase in the scalar field. The
gradient operator in cartesian coordinates is given by,
Thus, for a scalar field

Divergence of a Vector Field:

Given a vector field , the divergence of the vector field
measures how much the flow is expanding or converging at a
given point. Thus,
The mathematical operation returns a scalar and hence the divergence of the vector field does
not indicate the direction in which the expansion or convergence is occurring.

Curl of a vector field:

Given a vector field , the curl of the vector field defined as , represents the
infinitesimal circulation of the vector field about a given point. It essentially provides the
circulation density at each point of the vector field.
 This operation is conveniently written in the determinant form as

Some Examples:

1. If , determine

2. If , determine

3. If , determine
Some important properties of differential vector calculus

1. , where k is a constant.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.
9.

10.

In all the above, f and g are the scalar fields while and are vector fields.

Second Derivatives in Differential Vector Calculus

1.
Integral Vector Calculus

Line Integral: This is an integral where the function to be integrated is evaluated along a curve
or a specified path. The path can be either open or closed.

Integral over an open path Integral over a closed path

To illustrate the application of line integral, one can cite several examples from Physics. One of
the most common examples often cited is from Mechanics, where one requires to calculate the
work done by a force acting on a body, causing a displacement of .
We need to calculate along path 1 for both
(i) and (ii).
On similar lines, if one calculates the line integral for path 2,

For the closed path, however,

Surface Integral

Given a vector field and an infinitesimal surface of area , the surface integral is given
by

Open Surface Closed Surface

Outward directed normal to a give surface is generally

taken as positive
Similarly, y = 2 face gives a flux of +12, y = 0 face gives − 12, z = 2 gives +4. Thus the
total flux is 16+0+12−12+4=20.
Volume Integral

For a scalar field given by T and an infinitesimal volume dV, the volume integral is given by
Generalized Derivation of Coordinate systems used in EM theory

The curved surfaces as in the fig. are called

coordinate surfaces.

c’s are constants.

Intersections of these surfaces with each

other results in coordinate curves or lines.

If the coordinate surfaces intersect at right

angles, then the coordinate system is said
to be orthogonal.

of the curvilinear of a rectangular coordinate

system system
Unit Vectors in the Curvilinear System
Let the point P be defined by

Then,

One can draw a tangent vector to the u1 curve at P

which is given by,

The unit tangent vector in this direction is e1 where,

With

one can write, . One can similarly obtain the unit vectors e2 and e3 so that,

and . Here, h1, h2 and h3 are called as the scale factors. The unit

vectors e1, e2 and e3 are directed along increasing direction of u1, u2 and u3.

Apart from the tangents to the curves u1, u2 and u3 one can also draw normals to the curved
surfaces. These normals are defined as follows:

and
Therefore, with the tangent unit vectors as well as normal unit vectors defined as explained,
and vector A can be written as

Thus at every point P of a curvilinear system, there exists, in general two sets of unit vectors
which are tangent to the coordinate curves, and which are normal to
the coordinate surfaces.

The two sets become identical if and only if the coordinate system is orthogonal.

Arc Lengths and Volume Elements

If be the position vector of a point, then,

The differential arc of length ds is then, given by,

Since, , the differential arc length is given by,

while the differential volume is given by,

One can define the Gradient, Divergence and Curl in terms of the curvilinear coordinates.
Suppose is a scalar function and is the vector function of
orthogonal curvilinear coordinates and , the following laws hold:
Cartesian Coordinate System
In this coordinate system, the scale factors are: and the unit vectors
respectively are
Spherical Polar Coordinate System

One can calculate dx, dy and dz and find them to be

Now,

Therefore, we get,

Comparing the above with the equation

Therefore, the arc length, the area element and the volume element for spherical polar coordinate
system can be written in terms of the scale factors, coordinates and the unit vectors.
Theorem of Gradients:

Theorem of Divergences:

Theorem of Curls
(Stoke’s Law)
The Dirac Delta Function

Having seen the divergence of a vector field, let us calculate the divergence of a very special vector field by applying the
divergence theorem. The vector field is

It is evident that the function is purely radial and hence when one calculates the divergence of this, one gets

which becomes,

Therefore,

By the divergence theorem,

Now, calculating the right hand side of the equation of the divergence theorem, we get

This poses questions on the validity of the divergence theorem, but the theorem has been time tested and proven absolution
fine !

So where is the problem?

The issue here is the very special function that we are handling !

If we calculate the volume integral of this function, it blows up to infinity exactly at the origin, but goes to zero everywhere
else other than the origin !

But using the divergence theorem if one calculates the surface integral, which is only evaluated at the surface, however far
from or close to the origin, it always gives . BUT WHY ???

We are dealing with a very special function which is called as the Dirac delta function denoted as in 1-D.

Formally we define a one-dimensional Dirac delta function as follows:

 such that,

Therefore, if f(x) is any continuous function then the product is given by

And so,

For a delta function located at ,

Therefore, we also have

And hence, if any continuous function f(x) is multiplied by the delta function and integrated over all space, the result is
the value of the function at the point where it is defined.
One can extend the Dirac delta function to three dimensions as follows,

One can easily see that

With this introduction to the delta function, we now return to our discussion of the paradoxical application of the
divergence theorem.

integration over all space of the above equation now gives consistent answers.

The above can be generalized as,

where, is the separation vector.