Review of Maxwell's Equations- Part I

This is a brief review of Maxwell's equations for an undergraduate course on lasers in an electrical engineering program at a large state university. The lecture covers much of the material in Verdeyen's book "Laser Electronics", chapter 1.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• electrical
• engineering
• laser
• maxwell
• propagation
• wave
• equation
• anisotropic
• permittivity

[kridnix]

The comment below is bullshit, except for maybe the dark spot on Uranus...

[nickharvey7]

You said that the EM wave will interact with matter reradiating a new EM wave. Could this process form the forward passage of time at the most fundamental level forming the future moment by moment or photon by photon? In quantum physics we have the collapsing and reforming of the wave function forming Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle could this be the same uncertainty that we have with any future event?

[kridnix]

@nickharvey7 I am an engineer not a physicist, so QED and the more philosophical aspects of QM are beyond what I can knowledgeably comment on. I would say that to some extent at the quantum level (when dephasing and spatial coherence don't come into play) what I think you are saying might be correct, but certainly not on the macroscopic level. I'm afraid I'm in over my head on this one...

[jimmyshitbags]

something just occurred to me:

if you had an EM wave coming at your detector, and you had a detector positioned so that the beam hit your detector just as it reached a trough, would you detect no photons at all?

in other words, could you stare into a light source and see nothing but darkness?

[kridnix]

No. Many detectors pick up power, not field, and at a null of the electric field the magnetic field is a maximum so there is still energy being transmitted.

However if you have an antenna that detects only the electric field that was positioned in just the right place the signal could be zero.

[lkjhg31]

I will figure this out!

[kridnix]

I don't think anyone really "figures it out", rather we make peace with our inability to fully grok and do the best we can...

[h0wud0in2]

god i cant wait to get past the stupid introductory engineering stuff like manufacturing ang get to that stuff and quantum mechanics in 4th and higher semesters...

[johnybravolove2]

@mstax that dosen't work

[justinheath905]

Maxwells Original Equations Included What Was Once Deemed A Spiritual Component, Involving Tetrahedrons And Higher Dimensions... Einstein Himself Said It Was Brilliant.. But The PTB Scrapped Half Of The Theory And Gave Us This Inset, Set Of Equations. The Full Set Of The Actual MAXWELL EQUATIONS Can Explain Things Like Why Every Planet Has An Upwelling Of Energy At 19.5 Degrees (Hawaii, Olympus Mons, The Darkspot On Uranus, The Infinite Storm On Jupiter Etc.. And Also Hexagon At The Pole)

[jimmyshitbags]

@kridnix but thats not what your diagram shows, i dont think?

on your diagram with the E and H field moving along, the trough of the E coincides with the trough of the H, doesn't it?