468 CHAPTER 11 • APPLICATIONS OF HARMONIC FUNCTIONS
that the line integral of the tangential component of V (x, y) along any simply
closed contour be identically zero. If we consider the rectangle in Figure 11.47,
then the tangential component is given by p on the bottom edge, q on the right
edge, - p on the top edge, and - q on the left edge. Integrating and equating the
resulting circulation integral to zero yield
1
y+l>y 1x+l>:z;
Y [q(x+.C:.x,t)-q(x,t)]dt- "' !P(t,y+.C:.y)- p(t,y)]dt= O.
As before, we apply the mean value theorem and divide through by .C:.x .C:.y, and
obtain the equation
1 1y+ti.y 1 rx+l>:r;
.C:.y Y q.,(x1,t)dt- .C:.x}., p 11 (t,yz)dt=O.
We can use the mean value for integrals with this equation to deduce that
q., (xi, yi) -Py (xz, yz) = O. Letting .C:.x -+ 0 and .C:.y -+ 0 yields
q., (x, y) -Pv (x, y) = 0.
Equation (11-33) and this equation show that the function f (z) = p (x, y) -
iq (x, y) satisfies the Cauchy-Riemann equations and is an analytic function. If
we let F ( z) denote the antiderivative of f ( z), then
F(z) = (x, y) +iefJ(x, y), (11-34)
which is the complex pote nt ial of the flow and has the property
F' (z) = x (x, y) -il/Jx (x, y) = p (x, y) + iq (x, y) = V (x, y).
Since <j>., = p and </>y = q, we also have
grad</> (x, y) = p(x, y) + iq (x, y) = V (x, y),
so</> (x, y) is the velocity potentia l for the flow, and the curves
<f>(x,y) =I<,
are called equipotent ials. The function efJ (x, y) is called the stream function.
The curves
efJ (x, y) = I<2
are called streamlines and describe the paths of the fluid particles. To demon-
strate this result, we implicitly differentiate efJ (x, y) = K 2 and find that the slope
of a vector tangent is given by
dy -1/J., (x, y)
dx = 1/Jy (x, y) ·