Math 21a Curl and divergence Fall 2016

Div, grad, curl, and all that

The star player: the operator! Recall = h x , y , z i in 3D.

Input Output Formula in 3D

Gradient function f v.f. f hfx , fy , fz i
Curl ~
v.f. F = hP, Q, Ri v.f. F~ hRy Qz , Pz Rx , Qx Py i
Divergence v.f. F~ = hP, Q, Ri function F~ Px + Q y + R z

1 If f is a smooth function on R2 , and 2 f := f = 0, what is the name of the PDE

that f satisfies? The solutions to this PDE are called harmonic functions.
2 Find the curl and divergence of each vector field.

(a) F~ (x, y, z) = hy, x, 0i (c) F~ (x, y, z) = h0, y 2 , 0i

(b) F~ (x, y, z) = hx, y, zi (d) F~ (x, y, z) = hxy, yz, zxi

From these examples, can you say what curl and divergence measure?
 3

(a) If f is a smooth function on R3 , what is curl(grad f )?

(b) If F~ = hP, Q, Ri is a vector field on R3 , what is div(curl F~ )? What about curl(div F~ )?

(c) If F~ is a smooth vector field on R3 such that curl F~ = 0, then is there a function f on
R3 such that F~ = grad f ?

4 Prove the following identity: div(f F~ ) = f div F~ + f F~ for a smooth function f and
a smooth vector field F~ .

5 Let F~ be a smooth vector field, and let E be a region in R3 . What is the interpretation
div F~ dV ? Can you relate it to a surface integral over the boundary of E?
RRR
of E