Vectors and Tensors in

Engineering and Physics

D. A. Danielson
Department of Mathematics
Naval Postgraduate School
Monterey, California

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Addison-Wesley Publishing Company

The Advanced Book Program

Redwood City, California Menlo Park, California

Reading, Massachusetts New York Don Mills, Ontario
Wokingham, United Kingdom Amsterdam Bonn
Sidney Singapore Tokyo Madrid San Juan

CONTENTS
PREFACE

vii

1 V E C T O R ALGEBRA
1.1 INTRODUCTION
1.2 HISTORICAL NOTES
1.3 VECTOR BASICS
1.4 DOT AND CROSS PRODUCT
1.5 PHYSICAL SCALARS AND VECTORS
1.6 NOTATION OF OTHERS

1
1
1
2
5
9
16

2 T E N S O R ALGEBRA
2.1 TENSORS DEFINED
2.2 BASIC PROPERTIES OF TENSORS
2.3 MORE PROPERTIES OF SECOND-ORDER TENSORS
2.4 PHYSICAL TENSORS
2.5 NOTATION OF OTHERS

17
17
20
22
24
28

CARTESIAN C O M P O N E N T S
3.1 COMPONENTS OF A VECTOR AND COORDINATES OF A
POINT
3.2 TENSOR COMPONENTS
3.3 EIGENVECTOR REPRESENTATIONS
3.4 GEOMETRIC DISTORTIONS AND THE POLAR
DECOMPOSITION THEOREM
3.5 PHYSICAL APPLICATIONS
3.6 NOTATION OF OTHERS

29

GENERAL C O M P O N E N T S
4.1 CHANGE OF CARTESIAN BASE VECTORS AND
COORDINATE SYSTEMS
4.2 ROTATIONS IN TWO DIMENSIONS
4.3 ROTATIONS IN THREE DIMENSIONS
4.4 INVARIANCE OF TENSOR COMPONENTS
4.5 GENERAL BASES
4.6 NOTATION OF OTHERS

51

5 T E N S O R FIELDS OF ONE VARIABLE

5.1 BASIC CALCULUS OF VECTOR FIELDS
5.2 MOVING BASE VECTORS
5.3 NEWTONIAN MECHANICS OF A PARTICLE
5.4 DIFFERENTIAL GEOMETRY OF A SPACE CURVE
5.5 MOTION OF A RIGID BODY

73
73
75
78
84
88

29
34
36
42
45
50

51
55
59
62
67
71

vi

Contents
5.6

NOTATION OF OTHERS

97

T E N S O R FIELDS OF M A N Y VARIABLES
6.1 DIFFERENTIATION OF SCALAR FIELDS
6.2 DIFFERENTIATION OF VECTOR FIELDS
6.3 LINE, SURFACE, AND VOLUME INTEGRALS
6.4 GREEN'S THEOREM AND POTENTIAL FIELDS OF TWO
VARIABLES
6.5 STOKES' AND DIVERGENCE THEOREMS AND POTENTIAL
FIELDS OF THREE VARIABLES
6.6 NOTATION OF OTHERS

99
99
104
108

APPLICATIONS
7.1 HEAT CONDUCTION
7.2 SOLID MECHANICS
7.3 FLUID MECHANICS
7.4 NEWTONIAN ORBITAL MECHANICS
7.5 ELECTROMAGNETIC THEORY
7.6 NOTATION OF OTHERS

131
131
138
148
157
164
176

GENERAL COORDINATES
8.1 GENERAL CURVILINEAR COORDINATES
8.2 ORTHOGONAL CURVILINEAR COORDINATES
8.3 SURFACE COORDINATES
8.4 MECHANICS OF CURVED MEMBRANES
8.5 NOTATION OF OTHERS

177
177
184
191
200
205

FOUR-DIMENSIONAL SPACETIME
9.1 SPECIAL RELATIVITY
9.2 GENERAL RELATIVITY
9.3 NOTATION OF OTHERS

207
207
216
222

REFERENCES
HISTORICAL
MATHEMATICAL
PHYSICAL

225
225
225
227

A N S W E R S TO PROBLEMS

231

INDEX

273

113
122
129