# Advanced Mathematics for Engineers and Scientists/The Front Cover
## Nomenclature

| ODE | Ordinary Differential Equation |
| PDE | Partial Differential Equation |
| BC | Boundary Condition |
| IVP | Initial Value Problem |
| BVP | Boundary Value Problem |
| IBVP | Initial Boundary Value Problem |

## Common Operators

Operators are shown applied to the scalar $u(x_{1},x_{2},\cdots ,x_{n})$ or the vector field $\mathbf {v} (x_{1},x_{2},\cdots ,x_{n})=(v_{1},v_{2},\cdots ,v_{n})\,$.
| Notation | Common names and other notation | Description and notes | Definition in Cartesian coordinates |
| ${\frac {\partial u}{\partial x_{i}}}$ | Partial derivative, $u_{x_{i}},\ \partial _{x_{i}}u\,$ | The rate of change of $u$ with respect to $x_{i}$, holding the other independent variables constant. | $\lim _{\Delta x_{i}\to 0}{\frac {u(x_{1},\cdots ,x_{i}+\Delta x_{i},\cdots ,x_{n})-u}{\Delta x_{i}}}$ |
| ${\frac {du}{dx_{i}}}$ | Derivative, total derivative, ${\frac {\mathrm {d} u}{\mathrm {d} x_{i}}}\,$ | The rate of change of $u$ with respect to $x_{i}$. If $u$ is multivariate, this derivative will typically depend on the other variables following a path. | ${\frac {\partial u}{\partial x_{1}}}{\frac {dx_{1}}{dx_{i}}}+\cdots +{\frac {\partial u}{\partial x_{n}}}{\frac {dx_{n}}{dx_{i}}}$ |
| $\nabla u$ | Gradient, del operator, $\mathrm {grad} \ u\,$ | Vector that describes the direction and magnitude of the greatest rate of change of a function of more than one variable. The symbol $\nabla$ is called nabla. | $\left({\frac {\partial u}{\partial x_{1}}},\cdots ,{\frac {\partial u}{\partial x_{n}}}\right)$ |
| $\nabla ^{2}u$ | Laplacian, Scalar Laplacian, Laplace operator, $\Delta u,\ (\nabla \cdot \nabla )u\,$ | A measure of the concavity of $u$, equivalently a comparison of the value of $u$ at some point to neighboring values. | ${\frac {\partial ^{2}u}{\partial x_{1}^{2}}}+\cdots +{\frac {\partial ^{2}u}{\partial x_{n}^{2}}}$ |
| $\nabla \cdot \mathbf {v}$ | Divergence, $\mathrm {div} \ \mathbf {v} \,$ | A measure of "generation", in other words how much the vector field acts as a source or sink at a point. | ${\frac {\partial v_{1}}{\partial x_{1}}}+\cdots +{\frac {\partial v_{n}}{\partial x_{n}}}$ |
| $\nabla \times \mathbf {v}$ | Curl, rotor, circulation density, $\mathrm {curl} \ \mathbf {v} ,\ \mathrm {rot} \ \mathbf {v} \,$ | A vector that describes the rate of rotation of a (normally 3D) vector field and the corresponding axis of rotation. | $\left({\frac {\partial v_{3}}{\partial x_{2}}}-{\frac {\partial v_{2}}{\partial x_{3}}},{\frac {\partial v_{1}}{\partial x_{3}}}-{\frac {\partial v_{3}}{\partial x_{1}}},{\frac {\partial v_{2}}{\partial x_{1}}}-{\frac {\partial v_{1}}{\partial x_{2}}}\right)$ |
| $\nabla ^{2}\mathbf {v}$ | Vector Laplacian | Similar to the (scalar) Laplacian. Note however, that it is generally not equal to the element-by-element Laplacian of a vector. | $\nabla (\nabla \cdot \mathbf {\mathbf {v} } )-\nabla \times (\nabla \times \mathbf {\mathbf {v} } )$ |

## 3D Operators in Different Coordinate Systems

Cartesian representations appear in the table above. The $(r,\theta ,\phi )=(\mathrm {distance,azimuth,colatitude} )$ convention is used for spherical coordinates.
| Operator | Cylindrical | Spherical |
| $\nabla u$ | $\left({\frac {\partial u}{\partial r}},{\frac {1}{r}}{\frac {\partial u}{\partial \theta }},{\frac {\partial u}{\partial z}}\right)\,$ | $\left({\frac {\partial u}{\partial r}},{\frac {1}{r\sin(\phi )}}{\frac {\partial u}{\partial \theta }},{\frac {1}{r}}{\frac {\partial u}{\partial \phi }}\right)\,$ |
| $\nabla ^{2}u$ | ${\frac {1}{r}}{\frac {\partial }{\partial r}}\left(r{\frac {\partial u}{\partial r}}\right)+{\frac {1}{r^{2}}}{\frac {\partial ^{2}u}{\partial \theta ^{2}}}+{\frac {\partial ^{2}u}{\partial z^{2}}}\,$ | ${\frac {1}{r^{2}}}{\frac {\partial }{\partial r}}\left(r^{2}{\frac {\partial u}{\partial r}}\right)+{\frac {1}{r^{2}\sin(\phi )}}{\frac {\partial ^{2}u}{\partial \theta ^{2}}}+{\frac {1}{r^{2}\sin(\phi )}}{\frac {\partial }{\partial \phi }}\left(\sin(\phi ){\frac {\partial u}{\partial \phi }}\right)\,$ |
| $\nabla \cdot \mathbf {v}$ | ${\frac {1}{r}}{\frac {\partial }{\partial r}}\left(rv_{r}\right)+{\frac {1}{r}}{\frac {\partial v_{\theta }}{\partial \theta }}+{\frac {\partial v_{z}}{\partial z}}\,$ | ${\frac {1}{r^{2}}}{\frac {\partial }{\partial r}}\left(r^{2}v_{r}\right)+{\frac {1}{r\sin(\phi )}}{\frac {\partial v_{\theta }}{\partial \theta }}+{\frac {1}{r\sin(\phi )}}{\frac {\partial }{\partial \phi }}\left(\sin(\phi )v_{\phi }\right)\,$ |