• The integral of a function denotes the area under its curve. (If it is below zero, it is negative). It is more formally defined as
    Where the set of is a set of points spaced evenly. The intuition is that we take thin slices of the function.
  • By the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, the derivative and the integral are inverses of each other.
  • Iterated integrals generalize integrals in that they take the volume under the surface of the function. The intuition is to take thin slices along each direction.
  • The line integral is an integral over a Vector Field along a path . It is denoted as 1
    The RHS of the above is a parameterization over , a function denoting the position at time if we perform a motion on .
    • The Fundamental Theorem of Line Integrals says that for a curve starting at point and ending at point , we have that

      That is, gradient fields are path independent, that is, the above integral holds for any that starts and ends at and .

      This also implies the closed loop integral is defined as

      That is, gradient fields are conservative.

      This also implies that .

    • Green’s Theorem says that if is a closed curve oriented counter clockwise enclosing region and a two-dimensional vector field defined and differentiable in . Then

    • Green’s Theorem for flux says that if is a closed curve oriented counter clockwise enclosing region and a two-dimensional vector field defined and differentiable in . Then

  • The surface integral is an extension of the line integral, wherein we integrate over a surface . denotes the surface area element.

    • For a surface , the flux measures the amount of the function that passes through the surface (if we’re dealing with lines, we simply use line integrals). It is defined as

      Where is a unit normal vector pointing perpendicular to the surface

    • The Divergence Theorem states that that for closed surface enclosing region and a vector field defined and differentiable everywhere in , then

      Where is oriented outwards from the surface .

      Informally, the sum of all sources of the field in a region gives the net flux in the region

  • Stokes’ Theorem is a generalization of Green’s Theorem for three dimensions. It states that for any line in space enclosing surface , we have

    Informally, the line integral of a vector field over a loop is equal to the flux of its curl through the enclosed surface.

    Note: the surface must be oriented following the right hand rule (thumb towards the curve, index towards the interior of the surface, middle finger points to normal).

    The choice of surface doesn’t matter as long as bounds it.

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Footnotes

  1. This definition mirrors the definition of Work. Indeed, we can treat as a force.