Circulation Integral

A circulation integral measures rotation.


Description

Circulation of a vector field F along a closed curve C is measured with a line integral.

circ1.svg

where t̂ is the unit tangent vector. See here for an explanation of dr.

When the vector field is given as F = <P(x,y), Q(x,y)>, Green's theorem gives a method for evaluating this.

circ2.svg

This can also be easily reformulated into a vector form that uses curl.

circ3.svg


CategoryRicottone