Flux
F
through a
surface
, d
S
is the
differential
vector area
element,
n
is the
unit normal
to the surface.
Left:
No flux passes in the surface, the maximum amount flows normal to the surface.
Right:
The reduction in flux passing through a surface can be visualized by reduction in
F
or d
S
equivalently (resolved into
components
, θ is angle to normal
n
).
F
•d
S
is the component of flux passing through the surface, multiplied by the area of the surface (see
dot product
). For this reason flux represents physically a flow
per unit area
.