Homework 25 Solutions

Math 21a

Spring, 2014

Due Monday, April 14th (MWF) or Tuesday, April 15th (TTh)

A small warning: A common mistake at this point of the semester is to say Whew! Now that midterm two is done, I can
take a little break and catch up in a week or so! Dont make this mistake the material on arc length and surface area and
scalar line integrals and surface area, as well as the next few sections are a warm-up for everything we do from this point
forward. The material at the end of the course (which some students find the most challenging) depends heavily on your
knowing and being comfortable with the first few sections of Chapter 13 (and also on parametrization and double and triple
integration). Read Sections 13.1 and 13.2, and skim through Section 13.3 before your next class.
The following 4 questions cover the material on vector fields in Section 13.1.
1. Sketch the vector field F.
yi xj
(a) (Stewart 13.1 #6 ) F(x, y) = p
x2 + y 2
Solution:

All the vectors F(x, y) are unit vectors; you can tell simply by taking the length (squared):
2

|F(x, y)| =

y
p
x2 + y 2

!2
+

x
p
x2 + y 2

!2
=

y 2 + x2
= 1.
x2 + y 2

These unit vectors are tangent to circles that are centered at the origin with radius
is undefined.)

p
x2 + y 2 . (The vector field

(b) (Stewart 13.1 #10 ) F(x, y, z) = i j

Solution:

All vectors in this field have length

2 and point in the same direction, parallel to the xy-plane.

p
(c) (Stewart 13.1 #26 ) f , where f (x, y) = x2 + y 2
p
Solution: The gradient of f (x, y) = x2 + y 2 is
f (x, y) =

1 2
1
x
y
(x + y 2 )1/2 (2x)i + (x2 + y 2 )1/2 (2y)j = p
i+ p
j.
2
2
2
2
2
x +y
x + y2

As in part (a), this vector field is undefined at the origin, but elsewhere has length 1. Every vector in this vector
field points directly away from the origin (perpendicular to the level curve f = c, which is a circle of radius c):

2.

(a) (Stewart 13.1 #11-14 ) Match the vector fields F with the plots labeled IIV that are drawn in the textbook on
page 911. Give reasons for your choices. Please dont use Mathematica to solve this problem, as you will be
expected to be able to do this by hand on the exam.
(i) (Stewart 13.1 #11 ) F(x, y) = hy, xi
Solution: F(x, y) = hy, xi corresponds to Graph II. In the first quadrant all the vectors have positive x- and
y-components, in the second quadrant all vectors have positive x-components and negative y-components, in
the third quadrant all vectors have negative x and y-components, and in the fourth quadrant all vectors have
negative x-components and positive y-components. In addition, the vectors get shorter as we approach the
origin.
(ii) (Stewart 13.1 #12 ) F(x, y) = h1, sin yi
Solution: F(x, y) = h1, sin yi corresponds to Graph IV since the x-component of each vector is constant,
the vectors are independent of x (vectors along horizontal lines are identical), and the vector field appears to
repeat the same pattern vertically.
(iii) (Stewart 13.1 #13 ) F(x, y) = hx 2, x + 1i
Solution: F(x, y) = hx 2, x + 1i corresponds to Graph I since the vectors are independent of y (vectors
along vertical lines are identical) and, as we move to the right, both the x- and y-components get larger.
(iv) (Stewart 13.1 #14 ) F(x, y) = hy, 1/xi
Solution: F(x, y) = hy, 1/xi corresponds to Graph III. All the vectors in the first quadrant have positive xand y-components, in the second quadrant all vectors have positive x-components and negative y-components,
in the third quadrant all vectors have negative x- and y- components, and in the fourth quadrant all vectors
have negative x-components and positive y-components. This is like Exercise 11.
(b) (Stewart 13.1 #15-18 ) Match the vector fields F with the plots labeled IIV that are drawn in the textbook on
page 912. Give reasons for your choices. Please dont use Mathematica to solve this problem, as you will be
expected to be able to do this by hand on the exam.
(i) (Stewart 13.1 #15 ) F(x, y, z) = i + 2j + 3k
Solution:
direction.

F(x, y, z) = i + 2j + 3k corresponds to Graph IV, since all vectors have identical length and

(ii) (Stewart 13.1 #16 ) F(x, y, z) = i + 2j + zk

Solution: F(x, y, z) = i + 2j + zk corresponds to Graph I, since the horizontal vector components remain
constant, but the vectors above the xy-plane point generally upward while the vectors below the xy-plane
point generally downward.
(iii) (Stewart 13.1 #17 ) F(x, y, z) = xi + yj + 3k
Solution: F(x, y, z) = xi + yj + 3k corresponds to Graph III; the projection of each vector onto the xyplane is xi + yj, which points away from the origin, and the vectors point generally upward because their
x-components are all 3.
(iv) (Stewart 13.1 #18 ) F(x, y, z) = xi + yj + zk
Solution: F(x, y, z) = xi + yj + zk corresponds to Graph II; each vector F(x, y, z) has the same length and
direction as the position vector of the point (x, y, z), and therefore the vectors all point directly away from
the origin.
3. Mathematica will plot vector fields for you if you ask nicely. In this problem youll learn how to use Mathematicas
Documentation Center to find the command to plot vector fields. Youll use the command you find to solve (Stewart
13.1 #28 ).
(a) Find the gradient f of f (x, y) = sin(x + y).
Solution:

The gradient of f (x, y) = sin(x + y) is f = cos(x + y)i + cos(x + y)j.

(b) Under the Help menu in Mathematica, click on Documentation Center to open the built-in documentation.
Using the search bar, find out which command will plot vector fields, and what the syntax for that command looks
like.
Hint: You might search for vector field plot, plot vector or vectorplot1 , and look at the examples to see
how the command is used.
Solution: VectorPlot[{vx , vy }, {x, xmin, xmax}, {y, ymin, ymax}] generates a vector plot of the vector
field vx , vy as a function of x and y.
(c) Use the command you found below to plot the gradient vector field of f .
gradientfield = CommandYouFound[ ..., ..., ...]
Solution:

The command

VectorPlot[{Cos[x + y], Cos[x + y]}, {x, -4, 4}, {y, -4, 4}, Axes->True, AxesLabel->{x,y}]
gives you the following plot:

(Weve used some options to plot and label the axes; these extras are totally optional.)

1 This is the actual name of the command you want but you still need to look at the documentation to find out (1) how its capitalized!
and more importantly (2) what the right inputs are.

(d) Also plot the level curves of f on the same plot using the ContourPlot command we learned in Homework 01:
contours = ContourPlot[ ..., ..., ..., ContourShading->None];
Show[contours, gradientfield]
Solution:

(e) Explain how the contours and the gradient field are related to each other.
Solution: The above graph shows that the gradient vectors are perpendicular to the level curves. Also, the
gradient vectors point in the direction in which f is increasing and are longer where the level curves are closer
together.
(f) Use the CommandYouFound to check your sketches from question 1. You dont need to turn in these plots.
Solution:

See the solutions for Problem 1.

4. (Stewart 13.1 #36 ) Before starting this problem, read through (Stewart 13.1 #35 ).
(a) Sketch the vector field F(x, y) = i + xj and then sketch some flow lines. What shape do these flow lines appear to
have?
Solution:

The flow lines appear to be parabolas.

(b) If the parametric equations of the flow lines are x = x(t) and y = y(t), what differential equations (with respect
dy
= x.
to t) do these functions satisfy? Deduce that dx
Solution: If x = x(t) and y = y(t) are parametric equations of a flow line, then the velocity vector of the flow
line at the point (x, y) is x0 (t)i + y 0 (t)j. Since the velocity vectors coincide with the vectors in the vector field, we
have x0 (t)i + y 0 (t)j = i + xj, so dx
= 1 and dy
= x. Thus
dt
dt
dy/dt
dy
x
=
= = x.
dx
dx/dt
1

(c) If a particle starts at the origin in the velocity field given by F, find an equation of the path it follows.
Solution:

From part (b),

dy
dx

= x. Integrating, we have
y=

1 2
x + C.
2

Since the particle starts at the origin, we know (0, 0) is on the curve, so we can deduce that C = 0. Thus the path
1
the particle follows is y = x2 .
2