Vector Calculus Basics Quiz

Vector calculus is sometimes used as a synonym for the broader subject of multivariable calculus, which spans vector calculus as well as partial differentiation and multiple integration.

Vector calculus is a type of advanced mathematics concerned with differentiation and integration of vector fields, primarily in 3-dimensional Euclidean space $\mathbb {R} ^{3}$.

Vector calculus was developed from quaternion analysis by J. Willard Gibbs and Oliver Heaviside near the end of the 19th century, and most of the notation and terminology was established by Gibbs and Edwin Bidwell Wilson in their 1901 book, Vector Analysis.

<p>Vector calculus plays an important role in differential geometry, the study of partial differential equations, and is used extensively in physics and engineering, especially in the description of electromagnetic fields, gravitational fields, and fluid flow.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>In the conventional form using cross products, vector calculus does not generalize to higher dimensions, while the alternative approach of geometric algebra, which uses exterior products, does.</p> Signup and view all the answers