Home Assignment: 1

Department of Physics IISER Bhopal

Electromagnetism ( PHY-102)
Duration:..... 100 Marks

Instructions

Answer all the questions

1. Find the angle between the face diagonals of a cube.

2. Find the angle between the body diagonals of a cube.

3. Find a unit vector A that is perpendicular to,

B = 2x̂ + ŷ − ẑ, C = x̂ − ŷ + ẑ

4. If four vectors a, b, c and d all lie in the same plane show that,
(a × b) × (c × d) = 0

5. Prove that,
[A × (B × C)] + [B × (C × A)] + [C × (A × B)] = 0.

6. The orbital angular momentum L of a particle L = r × p, where p is linear momentum. With the
linear and angular velocity related by v = ω × r. show that L = mr2 [ω − r̂(r̂ · ω)].

7. Compute the Values of A · B × C given in the question number 3.

1
8. If a scaler function f (xy, z) = (x2 +y 2 +z 2 )− 2 , find ∇f at the point (1, 2, 3). Also compute magnitude
of f and |∇f | at (1, 2, 3).

9. Given a vector r12 = (x1 − x2 )x̂ + (y1 − y2 )ŷ + (z1 − z2 )ẑ, show that ∇1 r12 gradient with respect to
x1 , y1 and z1 ) is a unit vector in direction of r12 .

10. Show that ∇(fg) = g∇f + f ∇g, where u and v are differentiable scaler functions of x, y and z.

11. Let r be the separation vector from a fixed point (x0 , y 0 , z 0 ) to the point (x, y, z) and the r be the its
length. Show that
a) ∇(r2 ) = 2r.
b) ∇(1/r) = −r̂r2 .
c) What is general formula for ∇(rn ) ?

1
12. Compute the divergence of the following vector functions.
a) v = x2 x̂ + 3xz 2 ŷ − 2xz ẑ.
b) v = xyx̂ + 2yz ŷ + 3zxẑ.
c) v = y 2 x̂ + (2x + z 2 )ŷ + 2yz ẑ.

13. Prove following product rules for the gradient, divergence and curl using product rule for ordinary
derivatives,

a) ∇(A · B) = A × (∇ × B) + B × (∇ × A) + (A · ∇)B + (B · ∇)A.

b) ∇ × (A × B) = (B · ∇)A − (A · ∇)B + A(∇ · B) − B(∇ · A).

c) ∇ × (f A) = f (∇ × A) − A × (∇f ).

d) ∇ · (f A) = f (∇ · A) + A · (∇f ).