Cross Product – How to Calculate the Cross Product of a Cross Product

cross productgrad-curl-div

so I really can't see what I am doing wrong. I want to use this formula:

$a\times (b\times c) = b(a\cdot c) – c(a\cdot b)$

Calculate the rotation of $v(x,y,z)=(x,y,z)^T \times \omega$ with $\omega \in \mathbb R^3$

Solution:

$a\cdot c=\nabla\cdot \omega=0$

and

$a\cdot b = \nabla \cdot (x,y,z)^T= \partial_x x + \partial_y y + \partial_z z = 3$

so we get $-\omega 3=-3\omega$

The actual solution (which I do get by direct calculation) is: $-2\omega$

Best Answer

If you want to generalise formulae with vectors having commuting components, make sure to write the usual formula so as to preserve the order in products. For example, here the $i$th component of the RHS is $\sum_j a_j (b_i c_j-b_j c_i)$, once we impose the $abc$ order of the LHS. Now you know the generalisation off the top of your head. For $a_i=\partial_i$, the result's $i$th component is $$\sum_j \partial_j (b_i c_j-b_j c_i)=b_i\nabla\cdot c+c\cdot\nabla b_i-(\nabla\cdot b) c-b\cdot\nabla c_i.$$The vector, in other words, is $$\vec{b}(\nabla\cdot\vec{c})-(\nabla\cdot\vec{b})\vec{c}+(\vec{c}\cdot\nabla)\vec{b}-(\vec{b}\cdot\nabla)\vec{c}.$$(I've swapped the middle terms to mirror @md2perpe's quoted result, but the letters $b,\,c$ still need to be changed to $A,\,B$).

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