Warm up

It has been a week

● Revising Ampere's law

– Calculate the line integral for the following two closed

loops around an infinite wire

– Note that loops are imagined paths in space (mathematical

constructs)
 Point to ponder
Griffith Sec 7
● We have been saying that the flux of j through a
surface encircled by the Amperian loop is not well
defined.
– Lead Maxwell to fix the fourth Maxwell's equation by
introducing the displacement current.

Calculate for the LHS using the two surfaces shown in this
figure (flat surface and balloon like surface) and show that it
fixes the problem.
 Finally
● We are now in a position to write out Maxwell's equations in all
their glory!

● Four partial differential equations constitute a complete

description of the behaviour of electric and magnetic fields.
● Displacement current term → makes E and B on equal footing!
– i.e., electric fields can induce magnetic fields, and vice versa.
– sum up the experimental results of Coulomb, Ampère, and Faraday
very succinctly
 Electromagnetic waves
● Let us start from Maxwell's equations in free
space (i.e., with no charges and no currents):

Notice the nice

Symmetry between
E and B

● Let us search for plane-wave solutions of the

form:
K: wave vector
ω: angular frequency

Physical solution → Real part of above

● Where is the phase-difference?

● wave maximum of the electric field satisfies

equally spaced parallel planes

One plane for every value of n

● Test your understanding

– Geometrically the above represent a series of parallel planes
– how?
– Can you argue that the normal to the planes are along the
propagation vector k ?
● Wave fronts propagate in this direction k with
phase-velocity
Plane wave
Vector field

Every thing in terms of k

● Can we calculate divergence and curl of a

plane wave vector field in terms of k ?
● Show that

● Now throw in Maxwell's equations Transverse

E and B fields are perpendicular to the Waves!
direction of propagation!
● The third Maxwell equation gives

– Which implies that the dot product of E and B is 0!

– E and B fields are perpendicular to each other!
– Dot product of LHS with B yields
– E, B, and k form a right handed set!

● The final Maxwell equation gives

– Combine this with third Maxwell's equation to show

– Phase velocity:
 So the Maxwell's Equations (ME)
have everything in them
● If we assume plane wave solutions to ME then
● First and Second ME imply that the oscillating E
and B fields are orthogonal to the direction of
propagation
● Third ME implies that E and B fields are
orthogonal to each other
● Fourth ME implies that the phase velocity of
these propagating waves are a constant and
equal to the speed of light!

We have not yet seen the EXPLICIT wave equation themselves. But its easy to show!
● Maxwell conjectured that light, whose nature had
previously been unknown,
– was a form of electromagnetic radiation.
– remarkable prediction.
● Maxwell's equations were derived from the results of benchtop
laboratory experiments, involving charges, batteries, coils, and currents,
● which apparently had nothing whatsoever to do with light.

● Third ME also shows that the oscillating B fields are much

smaller compared to the strength of oscillating B fields.

– For this reason, electromagnetic waves are usually characterized

by their wave-vector (which specifies the direction of propagation
and the wave-length) and the plane of polarization (i.e., the plane
of oscillation) of the associated electric field.
How do we know ME hide a wave equation
within them?
● Take the curl of the fourth Maxwell equation
and use the other ME to show explicitly

WAVE EQUATION
 But is this just a jumble of symbols
or really the wave equation?
● We need to see this from more familiar things

● The Laplacian operator hides a geometrical meaning:

Difference
Difference from
from the
the average
average of
of nearby
nearby points
points

– Measure of how much A at r0 is different from its neighbors

– Positive ? → A at r0 is less than its neighbors
– Negative? → A at r0 is more than its neighbors
So now how to interpret the wave equation?

● The above then can be seen as Newton's law

of motion + Hooke's law on a vibrating string
– Acceleration of an element of the string = ?
– Restoring force = ?
– Equate the two properly
– Bingo