Problem 1

Find the curl of

v3

x
y

v3 yi xj
j

y
x

z
0

The curl of v3 points in the z-direction

X

Curl
To find a possible interpretation of the curl, let us consider a body
rotating with uniform angular speed w about and axis l. Let us define the
vector angular velocity
to be a vector of length w extending along l in
the direction
Take the point O as the origin of coordinates we can write R = xi + yj + zk

the radius at which P rotates is |R||sinq| Hence, the linear speed if P is

v = w|R||sinq| = W|R||sinq|

If we take the curl of V, we therefore have

that is

Expanding this, remembering that is a vector, we find

Conclusion: The angular velocity of a uniform rotating body is thus equal

to one-half the curl of the linear velocity of any point of the body.