(VECTOR CALCULUS)

By Manish Rajput Sir (MR100)

Dot Product

Let, a  a1iˆ  a2 ˆj  a3kˆ , b  b1iˆ  b2 ˆj  b3 kˆ are two constant vectors.

Then Dot Product of two vectors is given by
a.b  a b cos  where   angle between a , b .
Note :
1. iˆ  iˆ  ˆj  ˆj  kˆ  kˆ  1 (   00 )

2. iˆ  ˆj  ˆj  kˆ  kˆ  iˆ  0

3. Magnitude of Vector a  a  a12  a22  a32

a b
4. Angle between two vectors   cos 1
a b

l1l2  m1m2  n1n2

5. Also, cos  
l  m12  n12 l22  m22  n22
2
1

P1
l1 , m1, n1
P2

l2 , m2 , n2
Directional
cosines

6. If slopes are given and angle between two curves is  then

m  m2
tan   1
1  m1m2

7. If a  b  0  Vectors are orthogonal (  900 )

8. If a  b  a b  Vectors are parallel (  00 )

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 (VECTOR CALCULUS)
By Manish Rajput Sir (MR100)
Cross Product
If a and b are two vectors then then cross product between two vectors is
given by
a  b  a b sin  nˆ  unit vector normal to both a and b

Note :
1. iˆ  iˆ  ˆj  ˆj  kˆ  kˆ  0 (   00 )
2. iˆ  ˆj  ˆj  kˆ  kˆ  iˆ  1 (   900 )
a b
3. Angle between two vectors is  then sin  
a b

4. If a  a1iˆ  a2 ˆj  a3 kˆ and b  b1iˆ  b2 ˆj  b3 kˆ

then cross product between two vectors can be calculated as
iˆ ˆj kˆ
a  b  a1 a2 a3
b1 b2 b3

 iˆ (a2b3  a3b2 )  ˆj (a1b3  a3b1 )  kˆ (a1b2  a2b1 )

5. Geometrically cross product gives the area of triangle
6. If AB, AC are two sides of triangle then area of the triangle is
1
AB  AC
2
Triple Product
1. Geometrically Triple Product gives the Volume of Tetrahedron
a1 b1 c1
   
a  b  c  a  b  c   a b c   a2 b2 c2
a3 b3 c3

2.  
If a  b  c  0  Vector are coplanar vectors

Derivative of a Vector
Let, r  f (t ) be a position vector where t is a scalar variable.
r  r  f (t  t )
r  f (t  (t )  f (t )
r f ( t  ( t )  f ( t ) dr
lim  is called
t  0 t t dt
dr ( t  t )  f ( t )
  lim f
dt t 0 t

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 (VECTOR CALCULUS)
By Manish Rajput Sir (MR100)

Vector differentiation is nothing but ordinary differentiation but only

difference is r is position vector.
Formulae :
d d d
1. ( A  B)  A  B
dt dt dt

d dB dA
2. ( A  B)  A    B Where A  A(t ) and B  B(t )
dt dt dt

d dB dA
3. ( A  B)  A   B
dt dt dt
Vector Operator (  Del)

 ˆ  ˆ 
  iˆ  j k is called vector operator
x y z

Gradient

If  ( x, y, z ) be a given scalar function then  is called gradient.

 ˆj   kˆ 
  iˆ 
x y z

Note :
1. Physically, gradient gives rate of change of  w.r.t x, y, z separately.
2. Geometrically, it gives normal to the level surface.

Example 1

If   xyz then find the value of .

  
Sol.   iˆ ( xyz )  ˆj ( xyz )  kˆ ( xyz )
x y z
ˆ  ˆjxz  kxy
  iyz ˆ

Note :
r
1. (log r ) 
r2
r
2. (sin r )  cos r 
r

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 (VECTOR CALCULUS)
By Manish Rajput Sir (MR100)
r
3. ( r n )  n  r n1  r  n  r n1 .  n  r n 2 r
r

4. Let  ( x, y, z )  c be given equation of the level surface then the outward

 Grad ()
unique normal vector is defined as N  
 Grad ()

Example 2

Find the value of unit normal vector N̂ for the sphere x 2  y 2  z 2  9.

Sol.   x2  y2  z2  9

  iˆ(2 x )  ˆj (2 y )  kˆ (2z )

  2 x 2  y 2  z 2

 xiˆ  yjˆ  zkˆ xiˆ  yjˆ  zkˆ

Nˆ   
 x2  y2  z2 3

Let, 1 ( x, y, z )  C , 2 ( x, y, z )  C be given equations of two level surfaces

1   2
and angle between these two surfaces are given as  then cos  
1  2

Note :
The angle between two surfaces is nothing but the angle between their
normal.

1  2  0  then they are said to be orthogonal surfaces

Example 3

The angle between the two surfaces x 2  y 2  z 2  9 and z  x 2  y 2  3 at the

point (2, –1, 2) is
Sol. Here 1  x 2  y 2  z 2  9

1  iˆ(2 x )  ˆj (2 y )  kˆ (2z )  1  2 x 2  y 2  z 2  2 9  6

2  x 2  y 2  z  3

2  iˆ(2 x )  ˆj (2 y )  kˆ  2  2 4 x 2  4 y 2  1  21

1  2 (4 x 2  4 y 2  2 z ) 16  4  4 8
cos     
1 2 6 21 6 21 3 21

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 (VECTOR CALCULUS)
By Manish Rajput Sir (MR100)

Directional Derivatives of a Scalar Function

The directional derivative of a scalar function  ( x, y, z ) in the direction of a
a
vector a is given as   ê where eˆ 
a

If   ê is –ve then it is in the opposite direction.

Example 4

The Directional derivative of f ( x, y, z )  x 2 yz  4 xz 2 at (1, –2, –1) along

(2i  j  2k ) is

Sol.   iˆ (2 xyz )  4z 2   ˆj [ x 2 z ]  kˆ [ x 2 y  8 xz ]

Directional Derivative    ê

(2iˆ  ˆj  2kˆ )
At (1, –2, –1) we have   eˆ  [4  4] iˆ  (  ˆj )  kˆ [2  8] 
3
16 1 20 37
   
3 3 3 3
Divergence of a Vector

If F is a vector point function then   F is called Divergence of F

Where F  F1iˆ  F2 ˆj  F3 kˆ and F1 , F2 , F3 are the functions of x, y, z

  ˆ  ˆ  
   F   iˆ j  k   [F1iˆ  F2 ˆj  F3 kˆ ]
 x x x 
F1 F2 F3
F   
x y z
Note :
1. Divergence of a vector is scalar.
2. Physically Divergence measures (outflow-inflow)
3. A vector whose divergence is zero then it is said to be divergence free
vector (or) solenoid vector i.e. outflow = inflow = constant.
4. Geometrically, Divergence gives the rate at which the fluid entering in
a rectangular parallelepiped per unit volume at the point.
Curl of a Vector

  F is called the curl of a vector where F  F1iˆ  F2 ˆj  F3 kˆ

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 (VECTOR CALCULUS)
By Manish Rajput Sir (MR100)
i j k

F 
    F F 
 iˆ  3  2   ˆj  F3  F1   kˆ  F2  F1 
 x  
x y z  x z   z   x y 
F1 F2 F3

Note :

1. If   F  0 then it is said to be irrational vector otherwise it is said to

be rotational vector.

2. Physically Curl gives the angular Velocity W 

1
2

 V 
3. Divergence of a curl of any vector is always zero.

 
2
4.  .    

5. .    F   0

    F      F    F
2
6.

7. A  ( B  C )  ( A  C ) B  ( A  B) C is known as a vector triple product.

Example 5 :
The values of a, b, c so that the vector,
V  ( x  2 y  az ) iˆ  (bx  3 y  z ) ˆj  (4 x  cy  2z ) kˆ is irrotational

Sol.   V  0

iˆ ˆj kˆ
  

x y z
( x  2 y  az ) (bx  3 y  z ) (4 x  cy  2 z )

 iˆ(c  1)  ˆj (4  a )  kˆ (b  2)  0
 c  1, a  4, b  2
 a  4, b  2, c  1
So far we have seen about basic terminology in vector calculus and in the
next article we will discuss about integration in vectors. Also we will
discuss some important theorems which will convert one form of integral
into another form of integral.
Did you like this article on Vector Calculus? Let us know in the comments?
You may also like the following articles.

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 (VECTOR CALCULUS)
By Manish Rajput Sir (MR100)

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