Vocabulary

Last updated Oct 4, 2024 Edit Source

• List

All liquids and gases in the presence of gravity exert an upward force—called buoyancy—on any object immersed in them. If the object is less dense than the liquid or gas, buoyancy will make it float or rise upwards.

Rotation of a vector field. Can be viewed as flow of fluid or gas through said field.

related to: Divergence

Flow of a vector field. Can be viewed as flow of fluid or gas through said field. Expanding Flow: positive Divergence (like a magnet pushing away) Compressing Flow: negative Divergence (like a magnet pulling in)

related to: Curl

Values are stored on grids / volumes / fields think pyro simulation related to: Lagrangian Simulation

on volumes this can be used like normals on geometry to find out how the surface is oriented.

Values are stored on particles think POP simulation related to: Eulerian Simulation

Scalar fields store a single float per voxel. Examples: Density, Temperature, Masks

Vector Fields store three floats per voxel. Examples: Color, Velocity, Force

Vorticity is a pseudovector field that describes the local spinning motion of a continuum near some point (the tendency of something to rotate, as would be seen by an observer located at that point and traveling along with the flow.

Lines that meet at right angle / 90 degrees

sources / further reading:

• Divergence and curl: The language of Maxwell’s equations, fluid flow, and more - 3Blue1Brown
• The idea of the curl of a vector field - Math Insight
• The idea of the divergence of a vector field - Math Insight
• Gradients and Partial Derivatives - Physics Videos by Eugene Khutoryansky)
• Vorticity - Wikipedia