- #1
CraigH
- 222
- 1
Hi
I'm currently studying Electromagnetism, and we keep coming across this symbol:
[itex]\oint[/itex]
A closed line integral, something I have never really been able to understand.
If a normal integral works like this:
http://imageshack.us/a/img109/3732/standardintegral.png
where f(x) is the "height" of the function, and dx is an infinitesimally small "width", then the area equals
f(x1)*d(x1) + f(x2)*d(x2) + f(x3)*d(x3) + f(x4)*d(x4) ...
dx= x2-x1 and dx is infinitesimally small.
So, can someone please explain closed line integrals in a similar way?
In an attempt to answer this myself I created this picture, but it didn't help. Can someone please say what I did wrong?
http://imageshack.us/a/img825/4049/loopintegral.png
Thank you for reading
I'm currently studying Electromagnetism, and we keep coming across this symbol:
[itex]\oint[/itex]
A closed line integral, something I have never really been able to understand.
If a normal integral works like this:
http://imageshack.us/a/img109/3732/standardintegral.png
where f(x) is the "height" of the function, and dx is an infinitesimally small "width", then the area equals
f(x1)*d(x1) + f(x2)*d(x2) + f(x3)*d(x3) + f(x4)*d(x4) ...
dx= x2-x1 and dx is infinitesimally small.
So, can someone please explain closed line integrals in a similar way?
In an attempt to answer this myself I created this picture, but it didn't help. Can someone please say what I did wrong?
http://imageshack.us/a/img825/4049/loopintegral.png
Thank you for reading
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