detailed descriptions of the preferred embodiment are provided herein . it is to be understood , however , that the present invention may be embodied in various forms . therefore , specific details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting , but rather as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to employ the present invention in virtually any appropriately detailed system , structure or manner . turning first to fig1 there is shown a basic cell whose 12 exterior vertices are all equidistant from the center node . for the remainder of the description , the basic cell in fig1 is called the ve cell ( or just the ve ). turning now to fig2 there is shown a sample version of an isotropic vector matrix , which is built upon the basic ve cell . to accomplish an important function of this invention , there is shown in fig3 the six basis vectors of the ve cell : e 1 - e 6 . for definitiveness , the six basis vectors in fig3 are now expressed in cartesian coordinates ( in accordance with the cartesian orientation shown in fig1 ): e 3 =− a x ( 1 / 2 { square root } 3 )− a y ( 1 / 2 )+ a z ({ square root } 2 /{ square root } 3 ), e 4 = a x ( 1 /{ square root } 3 )+ a z ({ square root } 2 /{ square root } 3 ), e 5 =− a x ( 1 / 2 { square root } 3 )+ a y ( 1 / 2 )+ a z ({ square root } 2 /{ square root } 3 ), note that the basis vectors e 1 - e 6 have unit length as do the standard cartesian unit vectors a x - a z . also know that ( from inspection ): the basic ve cell has twelve vertices around the center node . we can use a six - tuple to reference all of these aforementioned twelve points , with each element of the tuple representing a displacement in the corresponding unit vector direction . the center of the ve cell will be designated to have an address of ( 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 ), and the vertice designated with the address ( 1 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 ) represents the point at the tip of the basis vector e 1 . a shorthand notation for the vertice at ( 1 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 ) is (+ 1 ). that is , we will use (− 6 ) to represent the vertice at ( 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 ,− 1 ). we now describe a method to construct the vector calculus curl operator on the ve cell . for the development of this finite - difference style evaluation of the curl within the ve , we use two vector s and t , which are related by the equation s =∇× t , which is to be evaluated at s ( 0 ), which requires values of the vector t at t (+ 1 ), t (− 1 ), t (+ 2 ), t (− 2 ), t (+ 3 ), t (− 3 ), t (+ 4 ), t (− 4 ), t (+ 5 ), t (− 5 ), t (+ 6 ), and t (− 6 ). that is , we use the value of t at all twelve exterior points of the ve cell to obtain an approximation of s at the center of the ve cell . moreover , the vectors s and t will be written is terms of the ve basis vectors ; that is : s = s 1 e 1 + s 2 e 2 + s 3 e 3 + s 4 e 4 + s 5 e 5 + s 6 e 6 , t = t 1 e 1 + t 2 e 2 + t 3 e 3 + t 4 e 4 + t 5 e 5 + t 6 e 6 . within the framework of the ve cell , we want to evaluate s =∇× t , which is defined ( as shown in any advanced vector calculus text ) as where da is the area enclosed by the contour of integration , and n is the unit vector is the direction which makes the right - hand side of the equation takes on its maximum value . the contour integral in the definition is commonly called the circulation ; which is a term that will be used in the remainder of this description . to accomplish an important aspect of the invention , we will evaluate contours around the four hexagonal planes of the ve cell . the four hexagonal planes of the ve cell are labeled the a - plane , the b - plane , the c - plane , and the d - plane . the aforementioned contours on the four hexagonal planes of the ve cell include only the exterior points of the ve cell , with each plane containing a unique set of six points . the exterior vertices on each of the hexagonal planes that make up the four contours are ( with the vertices in this order ): for each of the four contours to be evaluated , note that the lefthand side of the curl involves three components of the s vector in the ve basis . we now evaluate the circulation around the a - plane that is shown in fig4 and take the dot product of the result against the unit vector normal to the a - plane , n a (= a z in this case ). thus ( s 3 e 3 + s 4 e 4 + s 5 e 5 )· n a =( 1 / da )[ t · dl ] a . e 3 · n a = e 4 · n a = e 5 n a =({ square root } 2 /{ square root } 3 ), ( s 3 + s 4 + s 5 ) = ( √ 3 / √ 2 )  ( 1 / d   a )  [ ∮ t · d   l ] a , = a ′ , which defines the variable a ′. that is , a ′=({ square root } 3 /{ square root } 2 )( 1 / da ) t · dl ] a . the evaluation of a ′, as it involves standard vector calculus techniques available in the literature , will not be discussed herein . the evaluation of the contour around the b - plane that is shown in fig5 results in the following equation : where b ′=({ square root } 3 /{ square root } 2 )( 1 / da ) t dl ] b . the evaluation of the contour around the c - plane that is shown in fig6 results in the following equation : where c ′=({ square root } 3 /{ square root } 2 )( 1 / da ) t · dl ] c . the evaluation of the contour around the d - plane that is shown in fig7 results in the following equation : where d ′=({ square root } 3 /{ square root } 2 )( 1 / da ) t · dl ] d . evidently , as the equations from the four contours show , in accordance with an important part of the invention , the values for the components of the resulting s vector can now be written : which describes how to discretely approximate the vector calculus curl function on a ve cell , and within an associated isotropic vector matrix . in fig8 is shown the evaluation of the s 3 component of s — which involves the a ′ and b ′ contours . the divergence of a vector field and the gradient can also be derived within the framework of this isotropic vector field decomposition method . while the invention has been described in connection with a preferred embodiment , it is not intended to limit the scope of the invention to the particular form set forth , but on the contrary , it is intended to cover such alternatives , modifications , and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims .