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Vector fields are commonly used to create patterns in computer graphics. Here: abstract composition of curves following a vector field generated with OpenSimplex noise. A vector field for the movement of air on Earth will associate for every point on the surface of the Earth a vector with the wind speed and direction for that point.
Note: This page uses common physics notation for spherical coordinates, in which is the angle between the z axis and the radius vector connecting the origin to the point in question, while is the angle between the projection of the radius vector onto the x-y plane and the x axis. Several other definitions are in use, and so care must be taken ...
Interchanging the vector field v and ∇ operator, we arrive at the cross product of a vector field with curl of a vector field: = () , where ∇ F is the Feynman subscript notation, which considers only the variation due to the vector field F (i.e., in this case, v is treated as being constant in space).
For any smooth function f on a Riemannian manifold (M, g), the gradient of f is the vector field ∇f such that for any vector field X, (,) =, that is, ((),) = (), where g x ( , ) denotes the inner product of tangent vectors at x defined by the metric g and ∂ X f is the function that takes any point x ∈ M to the directional derivative of f ...
In vector calculus, divergence is a vector operator that operates on a vector field, producing a scalar field giving the quantity of the vector field's source at each point. More technically, the divergence represents the volume density of the outward flux of a vector field from an infinitesimal volume around a given point.
A generalization of this theorem is the Helmholtz decomposition theorem, which states that any vector field can be decomposed as a sum of a solenoidal vector field and an irrotational vector field. By analogy with the Biot-Savart law , A ″ ( x ) {\displaystyle \mathbf {A''} (\mathbf {x} )} also qualifies as a vector potential for v ...
In vector calculus, a conservative vector field is a vector field that is the gradient of some function. [1] A conservative vector field has the property that its line integral is path independent; the choice of path between two points does not change the value of the line integral. Path independence of the line integral is equivalent to the ...
A vector field defines a direction and magnitude at each point in space. A field line is an integral curve for that vector field and may be constructed by starting at a point and tracing a line through space that follows the direction of the vector field, by making the field line tangent to the field vector at each point.