Topics: Calculus - Tensor Calculus

Tensor Calculus

In mathematics, tensor calculus or tensor analysis is an extension of vector calculus to tensor fields (tensors that may vary over a manifold, e.g. in spacetime).

Developed by Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro and his student Tullio Levi-Civita, it was used by Albert Einstein to develop his theory of general relativity. Contrasted with the infinitesimal calculus, tensor calculus allows presentation of physics equations in a form that is independent of the choice of coordinates on the manifold.

Tensor calculus has many real-life applications in physics and engineering, including stress analysis, continuum mechanics, electromagnetism (see mathematical descriptions of the electromagnetic field), and general relativity (see mathematics of general relativity).