Vector calculus

Vector calculus (or vector analysis) is a branch of mathematics concerned with differentiation and integration of vector fields. The term "vector calculus" is sometimes used as a synonym for the broader subject of multivariable calculus, which includes vector calculus as well as partial differentiation and multiple integration. Vector calculus plays an important role in differential geometry and in the study of partial differential equations. It is used extensively in physics and engineering, especially in the description of electromagnetic, gravitational fields and fluid flow

Vector calculus was developed from quaternion analysis by J. Willard Gibbs and Oliver Heaviside near the end of the 19th century, and most of the notation and terminology was established by Gibbs and Wilson in their 1901 book, Vector Analysis.