Vector Analysis

Abstract

One of the major changes in undergraduate science curricula, and in engineering curricula in particular, brought about by the modern space age has been the introduction of vector analysis into several courses. The use of vector analysis comes rather naturally, since many of the quantities encountered in the modeling of physical phenomena are vector quantities; examples of such quantities are velocity, acceleration, force, electric and magnetic fields, and heat flux. It is not absolutely necessary that we use vector analysis when working with these quantities; we could use the components of the vectors and continue to manipulate scalars. Vector analysis though, simplifies many of the operations demanded in the solution to problems or in the derivation of mathematical models; thus, it has been introduced in most undergraduate science curricula.