Circulation
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The circulation of a function is the summation of the values it takes at each point on a closed curve (a loop), which is also known as its line integral over a contour. For a conservative vector field, the circulation is zero, but the circulation of the velocity of a fluid is rarely zero.
A mathematical expression for the circulation of the vector Pi + Qj is over contour C:
- Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \oint_{C} (P\, \mathrm{d}x + Q\, \mathrm{d}y)}
Green's Theorem provides a method for easily calculating circulations.