ELECTROMAGNETIC AND WAVE THEORY

STEP 2 - TO RECOGNIZE THE ELECTRODYNAMIC AND WAVES

APPLICATIONS

RAUL ANDRES NAVARRETE

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA - UNAD

TELECOMMUNICATIONS ENGINEERING

2018
 QUESTIONS

1. Explain the practical application of the loss tangent with an example.

The loss tangent is used to determine some material kind. It is given by the relation
of the lossy reaction of the field E and his lossless reaction, this parameter is very
useful if we want to determine the path of an electromagnetic wave, because the loss
tangent is part of the propagation constant.

2. What kind of information gives us the propagation velocity in electromagnetic waves

propagation?

The propagation velocity of the wave is the velocity at which a fixed phase point on
the wave travels, for a plane wave in a lossless medium it is given by,

𝜔
𝑣𝑝 =
𝑘

3. Explain how an electromagnetic wave behaves in free space, perfect dielectrics and
good conductors.

In general, the equation of the electric field of a wave, will be given by,

∇2 𝐸 + 𝑘 2 𝐸 = 0

Where k is defined as the wave number. Depending of the medium where the wave
is traveling k has different values, for free space 𝑘 = 𝑤√𝜇𝜀, i.e. there is no loss of the
wave amplitude. In a dielectric and good conductor mediums k or 𝛾 is now defined
as the complex propagation constant, where, 𝛾 = 𝛼 + 𝑗𝛽, where 𝛽 is the wave
number and 𝛼 is the attenuation constant.

4. Using the electromagnetic spectrum, explain the practical application of every type
of radiation.

The figure of the next page shows us some of the applications of the electromagnetic
spectrum.

5. What is the refraction index and what kind of information give us about the
electromagnetic waves behavior?
The refractive index or index of refraction of a material is a dimensionless number
that describes how an electromagnetic wave propagates through that medium. It is
defined as,
𝑐
𝑛=
𝑣𝑝

The refractive index determines how much the path of light is bent, or refracted, when
entering a material. This is the first documented use of refractive indices and is
described by Snell's law of refraction.
6. What are a plane wave and a non-plane wave and where are they used? What are a
magnetic and a nonmagnetic medium and where are they used? Why do we use plane
waves to explain practical models associated to electromagnetic phenomenon?
A plane wave is a wave which wavefront are infinite parallel planes, they’ve been
seen in propagation, the other wave has different forms of wavefront, for example,
one can find spherical wavefronts when a hits the surface of a pool.

In general a magnetic medium is a medium in which the magnetic dipoles from the
material are aligned in presence of a magnetic field, if it does not happen, the material
is nonmagnetic. Magnetics materials are used in radiators, transformers, generators,
etc.

Plane waves are used because electromagnetic waves are propagated in a cosine or
sine waveform, these two forms are plane waves.
 Bibliographic references

Quesada-Pérez, M., & Maroto-Centeno, J. A. (2014). From Maxwell's Equations to Free

and Guided Electromagnetic Waves: An Introduction for First-year Undergraduates. New
York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc, 49-80 Retrieved
from http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co:2051/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=746
851&lang=es&site=eds-live&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_49