2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/202914We discuss some properties of the intrinsically nonlinear Clebsch decomposition of a vector field into three scalars in d=3. In particular, we note and account for the incompleteness of this parameterization when attempting to use it in variational principles involving Maxwell and Chern-Simons actions. Similarities with string decomposition of metrics and their actions are also pointed out.4 pages, LaTeX; email correspondence to jackiw@mitlns.mit.eduFluid DynamicsHigh Energy Physics - TheoryMathematical PhysicsGeneral Physicstext