Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2024 / Paper 1 / 1 / a / Solution

For a continuously differentiable vector field $\mathbf{u}$ on a bounded region $V\subset {\mathbb{R}}^3$ with piecewise smooth closed boundary $S=\partial V$, the divergence theorem statesHere $\nabla \cdot \mathbf{u}$ is its divergence, $dV$ is the volume element, $dS$ is the surface area element, $\hat{\mathbf{n}}$ is the outward unit normal, and $d\mathbf{S}=\hat{\mathbf{n}}dS$. Thus a volume integral of the divergence equals the outward flux through the boundary.