Review The speed of an electromagnetic wave can be expressed in terms of two fundamental constants related to electric fields and magnetic fields the magnetic permeability and the electric permittivity of the vacuum Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 c 1 0 0 The speed of light is constant in any reference frame Spring Semester 2005 Relativity Lecture 34 For an electromagnetic wave the wavelength and frequency of the wave are related to the speed of light c f March 25 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 1 Review 2 March 25 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 2 Traveling Electromagnetic Waves Sub atomic processes can produce electromagnetic waves such as gamma rays X rays and light The Electromagnetic Spectrum Electromagnetic waves can also be produced by an oscillator connected to an antenna The connection between the circuit and the circuit on the right is accomplished using a transformer A dipole antenna is used to approximate an electric dipole The voltage and current in the antenna vary sinusoidally with time and cause charge in the antenna to oscillate with frequency of the circuit The electromagnetic waves created by moving charges travel from the antenna with speed c and frequency f 2 March 25 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 3 March 25 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 4 Traveling Electromagnetic Waves 2 Traveling Electromagnetic Waves 3 We can think of these traveling electromagnetic waves as wave fronts spreading out spherically from the antenna If we now place in the path of these electromagnetic waves a second RLC circuit tuned to the same frequency 0 as the emitting circuit voltage and current will be induced in this second circuit However at a large distance from the antenna the wave fronts will appear to be almost flat or planar If the second circuit has These induced oscillations are the basic idea of radio transmission and reception 0 2 1 LC 0 smaller voltages and currents will be induced providing selective tuning for different frequencies So we can think of the electromagnetic wave in terms of our assumed form E r t Emax sin kx t B r t Bmax sin kx t March 25 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 This principle of transmission of electromagnetic waves was discovered by German physicist Heinrich Hertz 1857 1894 in 1888 and then used by Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi 1874 1937 to transmit wireless signals 5 March 25 2005 Energy Transport The magnitude of the Poynting vector is related to the instantaneous rate at which energy transported by an electromagnetic wave over a given area If we stay out too long in the bright sunshine we will get sunburn These phenomena are related to electromagnetic waves emitted from the Sun more simply the instantaneous power per unit area These electromagnetic waves carry energy generated in the nuclear reactions of the Sun to our skin power S S area instantaneous The rate of energy transported by an electromagnetic wave is usually defined as The units of the Poynting vector are W m2 1 S E B 0 For an electromagnetic wave in which B is perpendicular to E we can write This quantity is called the Poynting vector after British physicist John Poynting 1852 1914 who first discussed its properties Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 6 Energy Transport 2 When we walk out into the sunlight we feel warmth March 25 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 S 7 1 EB 0 March 25 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 8 Energy Transport 3 Energy Transport 4 We know that the magnitude of the electric field and the magnetic field are directly related via E B c The usual method of describing the power per unit area in an electromagnetic wave is the intensity I of the wave given by We can express the instantaneous power per unit area of an electromagnetic wave in terms of the magnitude the electric field or the magnetic field 1 power E 2 sin 2 kx t ave I Save area ave c 0 max However usually it is easier to measure an electric field than a magnetic field so we express the instantaneous power per unit area as S The units of intensity are the same as the units of the Poynting vector W m2 1 2 E c 0 The average of sin2 kx t over time is 1 2 So we can express the intensity as We can now substitute a sinusoidal form for the electric field and obtain an expression for the transmitted power per unit area I E Emax sin kx t March 25 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 9 E cB We can understand this fact by remembering that the energy density of an electric field is given by 1 0E 2 2 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 10 c 1 0 0 We get 2 1 1 B 1 2 2 uE 0 cB 0 B uB 2 2 0 0 2 0 We obtain the result that the energy density of electric field is the same as the energy density of the magnetic field everywhere in the electromagnetic wave And the energy density of a magnetic field is given by 1 2 B 2 0 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 If we substitute Actually the energy transported by the electric field is the same as the energy transported by the magnetic field March 25 2005 Emax 2 Energy Transport 6 Because the magnitude of the electric and magnetic fields of the electromagnetic wave are related by E cB and c is such a large number one might conclude that the energy transported by the electric field is much larger than the energy transmitted by the magnetic field uB rms March 25 2005 Energy Transport 5 uE E 1 2 Erms c 0 11 March 25 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 12 Radiation Pressure Radiation Pressure 2 When you walk out into the sunlight you feel warmth but you do not feel any force from the sunlight Electromagnetic waves have energy Sunlight is exerting a pressure on you but that pressure is small enough that you do not notice it Let s assume that an electromagnetic wave is incident on an object and that this object totally absorbs the wave over some time interval t Electromagnetic waves also have linear momentum Because these electromagnetic waves are radiated from the Sun and travel to you on the Earth we call these electromagnetic waves radiation The object will then gain energy U over that time interval from the radiated electromagnetic waves and we can relate the change in momentum of the object p to the change in energy by This type of radiation is not the same as radioactive radiation resulting from the decay of unstable nuclei p Let s calculate the magnitude of the pressure exerted by these radiated electromagnetic waves March 25 2005 Physics for Scientists Engineers 2 U c The change in momentum of the object will be
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