Physics 3040: Electromagnetism (Normal)

Lecturer: Dr Shaghik Atakaramians (Room 304B)

E: shaghik.a@sydney.edu.au

Assignment 2
Please complete your assignments individually. Submit the scanned PDF version of the handwritten assignment or text-based PDF through Turnitin by 11:59pm Thursday 21 April 2016.
Please ensure your name and SID are prominent on your assignment.
Each question is worth 25 marks. You are expected to show all working out for each question.
Q1. A large parallel-plate capacitor with uniform surface charge on the upper plate and on the lower
is moving with a constant speed v.
(a) Find the the magnetic fields between the plates and also above and below them.
(b) Find the magnetic force per unit area on the upper plate, including its direction.
(c) Find the electric force per unit area on the upper plate, including its direction.
(d) At what speed v would the magnetic force balance the electrical force?
v
v

Q2. An alternating current I = I0 cos(t) flows down a long straight wire, and returns along a coaxial
conducting tube of radius a. The electric field inside the tube is:
~ t) = 0 I0 sin(t) ln( a )
E(s,
z.
2
s

(1)

(a) Find the displacement current density J~d .

(b) Integrate it to get the total displacement current,
Z
Id = J~d .d~a.

(2)

(c) Compare Id and I. (What is the ratio?) If the outer cylinder were, say, 2 mm in diameter, how high
would the frequency have to be, for Id to be 1% of I?

Q3. Imagine two concentric metal spherical shells as shown in the figure, where the inner one (radius a)
carries a charge Q(t), and the outer one (radius b) carries an opposite charge Q(t). The space between
them is filled with Ohmic material of conductivity .
(a) Find the electric field between the shells as a fiunction of t.
(b) Find the conduction current density J~ and the radial current I.
(c) Find the displacement current density J~d .
(d) Show that the magnetic field between the shells is zero.

Q4. A plane wave traveling in medium with r1 = 9 is normally incident upon a second medium with
r2 = 4. Both media are of non-conducting materials. If the magnetic field of the incident plane wave is
given by
~ I = 2 cos(2 109 t k1 y)z (A/m)
H
(3)
(a) Obtain time domain expressions for the electric and magnetic fields in each of the two media.
(b) Determine the average power densities (S~av ) of the incident, reflected and transmitted waves.

Shaghik Atakaramians
April 2016
2