The Curl of a Vector Field: Measuring Rotation
This video introduces the curl operator from vector calculus, which takes a vector field (like the fluid flow of air in a room) and returns a vector field quantifying how much, and about what direction, the flow is locally rotating, or swirling, at every point. The curl is a fundamental building block in vector calculus, and is used to measure the vorticity in a fluid. A tornado is a region of high curl.
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This video was produced at the University of Washington
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0:00 Introduction & Overview
5:22 Simple Example
9:07 Interpretation of the Curl
15:02 Intuition for Curl as Solid Body Rotation
24:29 Curl(Grad)=0 and Div(Curl)=0