Recent content by bwest121

Hi everyone, Given a vector-valued function ##\vec{A}##, how do I show that: $$\vec{\nabla} \times \left(\frac{\partial \vec{A}}{\partial x}\right) = \frac{\partial}{\partial x}(\vec{\nabla} \times \vec{A})$$ In other words, are the cross product and derivative commutative w/ each other? I...

Thank you so much. I very much appreciate you taking the time to provide such a thorough explanation. :)

I'm reading a textbook that says: "The directional derivative in direction ##u## is the derivative of the function ##f( \mathbf x + \alpha \mathbf u)## with respect to ##\alpha##, evaluated at ##\alpha=0##. Using the chain rule, we can see that ##\frac {\partial}{\partial \alpha} f( \mathbf x...

Thank you everyone. I understand how to do this now. I truly appreciate all the responses!

Homework Statement We're given the gaussian distribution: $$\rho(x) = Ae^{-\lambda(x-a)^2}$$ where A, a, and ##\lambda## are positive real constants. We use the normalization condition $$\int_{-\infty}^{\infty} Ae^{-\lambda(x-a)^2} \,dx = 1$$ to find: $$A = \sqrt \frac \lambda \pi$$ What I want...

I'm a 2nd-year physics undergraduate student at UC Berkeley. I think that it's about time I joined this community. I'm looking forward to asking and (hopefully?) answering questions with all of you. Thank you.