vector field analysis

[Ben Abbott]

On Nov 6, 2008, at 4:30 PM, nosek wrote:

>
> Dear Octave hackers,
>
> I have empirical 2D data describing some planar vector field.
> That is, I have a N x 2 matrix of XY coordinates for N points, and a  
> N x 2
> matrix of xy components of vectors, which represent the field's  
> direction
> and magnitude in each point appropriately.
>
> Questions:
>
> How can I visualize that kind of field using Octave functions?
> On Wikipedia I've seen some output of that sort from Mathematica, for
> example http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafika:Vectorfield.svg
>
> What kind of analysis can I perform with such data?
> How, for instance, could I compute (estimate) divergence of this  
> field, and
> deduce therefrom something about the localization of the field's  
> sources?
>
> Do you know any fora over the Internet that could be more adequate  
> to such
> problems?

I'm not certain I understand what you're trying to do, but does  
quiver() do what you're looking for.

	http://octplot.sourceforge.net/quiver.html

Ben