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It is a question vector calculus and Maxwell's laws. I put it this way. Let's say, we are working in a $3$-Dimensional space ( e.g $x\cdot y\cdot z = 4\cdot3\cdot2$, a certain room/class of that size ) .

Within this room, the heat obey a certain equation ( for e.g. $T = 25 + 5z$ ) .We know that heat flows from higher temperature regions to lower temperature regions. With this information in mind

How could I be able to determine the amplitude and the direction of travel of the thermal energy with the Del operator?

I'm not looking for a definitive response, but an equation that could give me potentially the result for the amplitude and the direction. I also want to know if thermal energy follows a loop pattern within my room (and be able to explain it mathematically by using the del operator once again of course)?

You can find the lecture source here.

From those, we are able to get the Amplitude:

For one dimensional heat flow, we have $q= k \dfrac{T_2-T_1}{L}$ , where $T_1$ and $T_2$ are terminal temperatures and $L$ is the length of the material. Switching to $3$-D spaces, we need to look at the fourier system of the heat transfer before proceeding further. $\dfrac{q_x}{A}= - K \dfrac{dT}{dx}$. So integrating we obtain $$\dfrac{q_x}{A}\large \int_{0}^{L} \ dx= -k \int_{T_1}^{T_2} \ dT.$$

So given that the heat flow ( rate of conduction ) in the $3$-D space $(x,y,z)$ is given by the following equation $$ q= - k \nabla T = - k \bigg( \hat{i} \dfrac{\partial T}{\partial x}+\hat{j} \dfrac{\partial T}{\partial y}+\hat{k} \dfrac{\partial T}{\partial y}\bigg).$$The negative sign, there indicates the transfer of heat from one place to another. So we can simply substitute the heat equation in the place of $T$ and compute the partial derivatives to get the rate of flow of heat.

What about the direction?

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1 Answer 1

Actually you already wrote the answer, $\bf{\nabla} T$ is actually a vector that points in the direction where the temperature rises the steepest. So minus this vector is the direction where the temperature falls the steepest.

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