Curl
Curl measures the spin of a vector field.
Contents
Description
The curl of a vector field given as F = <P(x,y), Q(x,y)> is calculated as:
where Qx = ∂Q/∂x and Py = ∂P/∂y.
For an F given as <P(x,y,z), Q(x,y,z), R(x,y,z)>, it is calculated as:
where Pz = ∂P/∂z, Qz = ∂Q/∂z, Rx = ∂R/∂x, and Ry = ∂R/∂y.
Note that curl returns a new vector field. Generally this vector field is then evaluated at a given point.
Properties
The curl of a conservative vector field is always 0.