Elements of Vector Calculus : Divergence and Curl of a Vector Field

Lecture 3: Electromagnetic Theory

Professor D. K. Ghosh, Physics Department, I.I.T., Bombay

In the last lecture we had defined divergence of a vector field and had obtained an expression for the
divergence in the Cartesian coordinates. We also derived the divergence theorem which connects
the flux of a vector field with the volume integral of the divergence of the field.
Physically, the divergence, as the name suggests is a measure of the amount of spread that the field has
at a point.

For instance, in the figure above, the vector field shown to the left has a positive divergence while that
to the right has a negative divergence. In electrostatics, we will see that the field produced by a
positive charge has positive divergence while a negative charge produces an electrostatic field with
negative divergence.
Divergence, curl etc. were extensively used in fluid dynamics from which a lot of nomenclature have
arisen. Let us consider a fluid flowing through an elemental volume of dimension
with its sides oriented parallel to the Cartesian axes. In the figure below, we show only the ycomponent of the velocity of the fluid entering and leaving the elemental volume. Let the density of
the fluid at
be
) and the y-component of the velocity be . We define a vector
. The mass of the fluid flowing into the volume per unit time through
the left face which has an outward normal
is given by

Mass of the fluid flowing out is

expansion, we have

Thus the net increase in mass is

. Retaining only the first order term in a Taylor series

. This is the increase due to the y-component of the

velocity. We can write similar expressions for the flow in the x and z directions. The net increase in
mass per unit time is
element

, where we have put the volume

so as not to confuse with the vector

defined above.

Another of of talking about the net increase in mass is to realize that since the volume is fixed, the
.

increase in mass is due to a change in the density alone. Thus the rate of increase of mass is
Equating these two expressions, we get what is known as the equation of continuity in fluid
dynamics,

To see what this equation implies, consider, for example a vector field given by
field has been plotted using Mathematica (see figure)

. The

To the left is plotted

. Note that in the first and the third quadrants the divergence is
positive while in the other two quadrants it is negative. The figure to the right is for the force field
which has zero divergence.

The size of the arrow roughly represents the magnitude of the vector. The divergence is given by
. In
the first and the third quadrants (x,y both positive or both negative) divergence is positive. One can
see that in these quadrants, if you take any closed region the size of the arrows which are entering
the region are smaller than those leaving it. Thus the density decreases, divergence is positive.
Reverse is true in the even quadrants.
In the figure to the right, the force field
has zero divergence. If you take a closed region in this
figure, you find as many vectors are getting in as are going out. The field is a solenoidal (zero
divergence) field.
Divergence Theorem Examples :
Recall divergence theorem :

, where the surface integral is taken over a closed

surface defining the enclosed volume. As an example consider the surface integral of the position
vector over the surface of a cylinder of radius a and height h.

Evaluating the surface integral by use of the divergence theorem is fairly simple. Divergence of position
. Thus the volum integral of the

vector has a value 3 because

divergence is simply three times the volume of the cylinder which gives
Direct calculation of the surface integral can be done as follows. For convenience, let the base of the
cylinder be in the x-y plane with its centre at the origin.

There are three surface of the cylinder, a top cap, a bottom cap and the curved surface. For the top cap,
the normal vector is along the direction, so that
. On the top surface z is constant and is
given by z=h. Thus
. For the bottom cap, is along the
direction so that
. However, the value of z on this surface being zero, the flux vanishes. We are now left
with the curved surface for which the outward normal is parallel to the x-y plane. The unit vector on
this surface is

. However, on the surface

. Thus

. Thus the surface integral is

. Adding to this the

contribution from the top and the bottom face, the surface integral works out to
obtained from the divergence theorem

, as was

As a second example, consider a rather nasty looking vector field

over the surface of a cubical box
We will not
attempt to calculate the surface integral directly. However, the divergence theorem gives a helping
hand.

. As the integrand has no z dependence,

We need to calculate the triple integral

the z-integral evaluates to 1. The volume integral is
Curl of a Vector Field :

We have seen that the divergence of a vector field is a scalar field. For vector fields it is possible to define
an operator which acting on a vector field yields another vector field. The name curl comes from
circulation which measures how much does a vector field curls about a point.
Consider an open surface of the type shown something like an inverted pot with a rim. We wish to
calculate the surface integral of a vector field defined over this surface.

Let us divide the surface into a large number of small segments and calculate the line integral over the
boundary of such an elemental surface. One such elemental surface with boundary is shown. If we
define the bounding curve of this surface in the counterclockwise direction, the normal to such a
surface will be outward. If we consider each such segment and take the line integral over the
bounding curve
, the contribution to the line integral from adjacent regions will cancel because
the line integral from the boundary are traversed in opposite sense (look at the black and the red
arrows on the boundary of two segments). Considering all such segments, we will be only left with
the uncompensated line integral at the rim. This is illustrated in the following figure :
The line integral on the boundary for ABCD + line integral for
The boundary of CDEF is equal to the line integral for ABEF
because the integral is traversed along CD in the former and
along DC in the latter.

Thus we have,

(1)
The quantity in the parenthesis in the last expression is defined as the curl of the vector field when the
limit of the elemental surface goes to zero. Curl being a vector, its direction is specified as the
outgoing normal to the surface element.
(2)
.It may be noted that because the definition is valid in the limit of the surface area going to zero, it is a
point relationship. Using this definition, we can write the previous equation (1) as

This equation relates the surface integral of the curl of a vector field with the line integral of the vector
field and is known as Stokes Theorem.

Elements of Vector Calculus : Divergence and Curl of a Vector Field

Lecture 3: Electromagnetic Theory
Professor D. K. Ghosh, Physics Department, I.I.T., Bombay

Tutorial

1. Calculate the flux of the vector field

over the surface of a unit cube whose
edges are parallel to the axes and one of the corners is at the origin. Use this result to illustrate the
divergence theorem.
2. Calculate the flux of the vector field
over the surface of a unit sphere. Use this
result to illustrate the divergence theorem. (Use spherical coordinates).
3. Calculate the flux of the vector
over the surface of a right circular cylinder
of radius R bounded by the surfaces z=0 and z=h. Calculate it directly as well as by use of the
divergence theorem.
4. Calculate the flux of the position vector
through a torus of inner radius a and outer radius
b. Use the result to illustrate divergence theorem. (* This is a hard problem).
5. Calculate the flux of the vector field

over the surface defined by

Solution to Tutorial Problems :

1. The geometry of the cube along with the direction of surface normalsare shown in the figure.
Consider the base of the cube which is the plane z=0. On this face
Since the normal is
along the -z direction flux from this face is zero. Similarly, the flux from the other two faces
which meet at the origin are also zero. Consider the top face where z=1. On this face
. The normal is in the +z direction, so that the flux is

Likewise, the

flux from the other two faces are also each. The total flux, therefore, is 3/2. The divergence of
the field

is

The volume integral of the divergence is

By symmetry, this is 3 times

. Thus the volume integral of the
divergence is 3/2.

2. Divergence of the field is

surface of a unit sphere is just

Thus the volume integral of the divergence over the

To calculate the surface integral we note that the normal on

the surface of the sphere is along the radial direction and is given by

, where R=1 is

. Since the surface element on the sphere is

the radius of the sphere. Thus
, we have , substituting (in spherical polar)
,
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The first term gives zero because of vanishing of the integral over . We are left with

3. Let the base of the cylinder be at z=0 and the top at z=h. The origin is at the centre of the base.
The cylinder has three surfaces. For the bottom surface, the direction of the normal is along
and on this surface z=0. The surface integral for this surface is
For the top
surface, the normal is along

, z=h, the surface integral is

For

the curved surface the direction of the normal is outward radial direction in the x-y plane which
is

, so that the surface integral is

. The integral is done in the cylindrical

coordinates by polar substitution

The surface element is
.
Thus the integral become
. The angle integral in both
cases gives zero. Thus the total flux is only contributed by the top surface and is
This can also be seen by the divergence theorem.

. The volume integral is

4. Geometrically a torus is obtained by taking a circle, say in the x-z plane and rotating it about the
z-axis to obtain a solid of revolution. Let us define the mean radius of the torus to be
and the radius of the circle which is being revolved about the z-axis to be

The position

vector of an arbitrary point on the torus is defined as follows.

Consider the coordinate of an arbitrary point on the circle which is in the x-z plane. Let the
position of the point make an angle with the x-axis. The coordinate of this point is
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When the circle is rotated about the z-axis by an angle , the z

coordinate does not change. However, the x and y coordinates change and become

Thus an arbitrary point on the torus can be parameterized by

with x, y and z given by the

above expressions. A surface element on the torus is then obtained by the area formed by an
The area
arc obtained by incrementing by d and the arc formed by incrementing by
element is therefore given by the cross product

. (The unit vector on the

surface is directed along the direction of the cross product.). The partial derivatives are given by

Thus
(the order of the cross product determines the outward normal). Thus , substituting

Since the integrand is independent of the integral over it gives

The integral over the
remaining angle is straightforward. We can simplify the integrand as follows :

The second and the third term in the integral vanish, the remaining two terms give
, which
makes the total contribution to the surface integral as
.
However, the problem is straightforward if we apply the divergence theorem. The divergence of
the position vector is 3. Thus by divergence theorem, the surface integral is 3 times the volume
of the toroid. The volume of the toroid is rather easy to calculate if we note that if we cut it
along a section, the toroid becomes a cylinder of radius r and length
. Thus the volume of

the toroid is
. Thus 3 times the volume is
direct evaluation of the surface integral.

, consistent with our

5. The surface is sketched below. Since

the region of interest is
Notice
that the divergence theorem is not directly applicable because the surface is not closed.
However, one can close the surface by adding a cap to the surface at z=3. We will calculate the
flux by applying the divergence theorem to this closed surface and then explicitly subtract the
surface integral over the cap.

The divergence of the field is given by

Thus the surface integral over the closed

surface is thus given by
. To
evaluate this, consider a disk lying between z
and z+dz. The circular disk of width dz has a
volume
This
gives the surface integral to be
We have
to now subtract from this the surface
integral over the cap that was added by us,
which is directed along
direction. On this
surface z=3 so that the radius of the disk is 1.
This integral
can be easily
calculated and shown to have value zero.
Thus the required surface integral has a
value

Elements of Vector Calculus : Divergence and Curl of a Vector Field

Lecture 3: Electromagnetic Theory
Professor D. K. Ghosh, Physics Department, I.I.T., Bombay

Self Assessment Quiz

In the following questions calculate the flux both by direct integration and also by
application of the divergence theorem.
1. Calculate the flux of the field
over the surface of a right circular cylinder
of radius R and height h in the first octant, i.e. in the region (x>0, y>0, z>0).

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2. Evaluate the surface integral of the vector field

unit cube with the origin being at one of the corners.
3. Calculate the flux of
centre at the origin.

over the surface of a

over the surface of a sphere of radius R with its

4. Calculate the flux of F = xi + yj + zk through the surface defined by a cone

=
z

x 2 + y 2 and the plane z = 1.

5. Evaluate the flux through an open cone

=
z

F = xi + yj + zk .

x 2 + y 2 with z 2 for the field

Solutions toSelf Assessment Quiz

1.

For the curved surface of the cylinder, the unit vector is

which gives

, Since we are confined to the first octant

Parameterize
The flux through the slant surface is

. The

directions, the contribution from these two give

top and the bottom caps are in the
zero by symmetry. There are two more surfaces if we consider the first octant, they are the
positive x-z plane and the positive y-z plane., the normal to the former being in the direction
of
while that for the latter is along
directions. The flux from the former is
, while that from the latter is

. Adding up all

the contributions, the total flux from the closed surface is zero. This is consistent with the
fact that the divergence of the field is zero.
2. There are six faces. For the face at x=0, since the surface is directed along
direction, the
The face at x=1 gives +1/2. The faces at y=0 and that
surface integral is
at z=0 gives zero because the field is proportional to y and z respectively. The contribution
to flux from y=1 is 1 and that from z=1 is 3/2. Adding, the flux is 5/2 units. This can also be
done by the divergence theorem. Divergence of the field is 2x+3y, so that the volume
integral is
3. The divergence of the given vector field is 3(x 2 + y 2 + z 2 ) =
3r 2 . Thus, by divergence
R

12 R 5
. We can show this result by direct
theorem, the flux is
3 r dV 3.4
r dr
=
=
5
0
2

integration. The unit normal on the surface of the sphere is given by r =

that the flux is

+ jy
+ kz
ix
, so
R

x 4 + y4 + z 4

rdS
=
dS . This integral can be conveniently evaluated

R
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in a spherical polar coordinates

with x R=
=
sin cos , y R=
sin sin , z R cos .
The surface element on the sphere is dS = R 2 sin d d . By symmetry, the flux can be

z4
3.2
seen to be 3 dS =
(R cos )4R2 sin d . (Note that we decided to do the
R
R 0
integral involving z4 rather than x4 or y4 because the azimuthal integral gives 2 in this case.
The integral is easy to perform with the substitution = cos , d = sin d , which
1

12 R 5
gives the flux to be 6 R d =
.
5
1
5

4. The divergence of the field is 3. The flux, therefore, is 3 times the volume of the cone which
is (1 / 3) R 2h = / 3 . The flux is thus . The direct calculation of the flux involves two
surfaces, the slant surface and the cap, as shown in the figure. The cap is in the xy plane and
has an outward normal n = k . The flux

=
F
ndS

zdxdy= dxdy=

(because on

the cap z=1 and the cap is a disk of unit radius). Thus it remains to be shown that the flux
from the slanted surface vanishes. At any height z, the section parallel to the cap is a circle
of radius z. Since, the height and the radius of the cap are 1 each, the semi angle of the cone
is 450.

n
y

x
Thus the normal to the slanted surface has a component 1 / 2 along the z direction and

1 / 2 in the x-y plane. The component in the xy plane can be parameterized by the
cos i + sin j k
. The area element can
azimuthal angle and we can write n(z, ) =
2
be written as (zd )( 2dz ) , the factor

2 appears because the length element is along

the slant. Thus the contribution from the slanted surface is

12

=
F ndS

Using x z=
cos , y z sin , this
d zdz x cos + y sin z .=

integral can be evaluated and shown to be zero.

5. This problem is to be attempted similar to the problem 5 of the tutorial, i.e., by closing the
cap and subtracting the contribution due to the cap. The divergence being 3, the flux from
the closed cone is 3 times the volume of the cone which gives 8 . The contribution from
the top face (which is a disk of radius 2 ) is

=
F
ndS

zdxdy= 2dxdy=

8 . Thus

the net flux is zero. (You can also try to get this result directly as done in problem 4, where
we showed that the flux from the curved surface is zero).

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