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.

Example: For velocity field,

u x e sin yz i x e cos yz j
^

w u
x
u

y
v

z
w

, find the angular velocity .

For the field,

u x e sin yz i x e cos yz j
^

, we obtain:
^

i
j
k

w u
x
y
z
x
x
x e sin yz x e cos yz 0

^
^

x e x cos yz i
x e x sin yz j
x e x cos yz
x e x sin yz k
z
z
y
x

e y sin yz i e y cos yz j 1 e cos yz ze cos yz k

x