03 Notation of the Separation Vector from Griffiths

Author

Guest_1013

Published

2026-08-09

Many different textbooks of Electrodynamics tend to use different notations, especially for the separation vector. As is defined by Griffiths,

\brcurs = \bm{r} - \bm{r'}

where \bm{r} is the field point and \bm{r'} is the source point, as is illustrated below.

Figure 1: The illustration of the notation above. Captured from Introduction to Electrodynamics, Fourth Edition by David Griffiths, pp.8, FIGURE 1.14.

For a technical note on how this is implemented in \LaTeX and \KaTeX, see this blog post.

---
title: "03 Notation of the Separation Vector from Griffiths"
author: Guest_1013
date: 2026-08-09
---

Many different textbooks of Electrodynamics tend to use different notations, especially for the **separation vector**. As is defined by Griffiths, 

$$
\brcurs = \bm{r} - \bm{r'}
$$

where $\bm{r}$ is the field point and $\bm{r'}$ is the source point, as is illustrated below.

![The illustration of the notation above. Captured from _Introduction to Electrodynamics_, Fourth Edition by David Griffiths, pp.8, FIGURE 1.14.](/images/notes/math-notes/calligra-r/griffiths-rcurs.png){#fig-notation}


For a technical note on how this is implemented in $\LaTeX$ and $\KaTeX$, see [this blog post](/blog/posts/20260809-katex-includegraphics-rcurs.md).