Electromagnetic Waves

Review

Lecture 01

Lecture 01 Antenna and Wave Propagation | Dr. Saleem Shahid 1

 Introduction
History of Electromagnetics

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 What are electromagnetic waves?

• How electromagnetic waves are formed

• How electric charges produce electromagnetic waves
• Properties of electromagnetic waves

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 Electromagnetic Waves

• Do not need matter to transfer energy.

• Are made by vibrating electric charges and can

travel through space by transferring energy
between vibrating electric and magnetic fields.

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 Why EM Fields?

• The electromagnetic force is one of the four

fundamental forces of Nature. (What are the other
three?)

• Charged particles interact by the EM force, via EM

fields.

• But why do we (electrical engineers) care?

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What happens when electric and
magnetic fields change?
• A changing magnetic field creates a changing electric field.
• One example of this is a transformer which transfers electric
energy from one circuit to another circuit.
• In the main coil changing electric current produces a
changing magnetic field
• Which then creates a changing electric field in another
coil producing an electric current
• The reverse is also true.

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 This page was copied from Nick Strobel's Astronomy Notes. www.astronomynotes.com

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 Making Electromagnetic Waves
• When an electric charge vibrates, the electric field around it
changes creating a changing magnetic field.

• The magnetic and electric fields create each other again and
again.

• An EM wave travels in all directions. The previous figure only

shows a wave traveling in one direction.

• The electric and magnetic fields vibrate at right angles to the

direction the wave travels so it is a transverse wave.

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 Properties of EM Waves

• All matter contains charged particles that are always moving;

therefore, all objects emit EM waves.

• The wavelengths become shorter as the temperature of the

material increases.

• EM waves carry radiant energy.

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 What is the speed of EM waves?

• All EM waves travel at Material Speed (km/s)

300,000 km/sec in space.
(speed of light-nature’s Vacuum 300,000
limit!)
Air <300,000
• EM waves usually travel
slowest in solids and Water 226,000
fastest in gases.
Glass 200,000

Diamond 124,000

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 What is the wavelength &
frequency of an EM wave?
• Wavelength= distance from crest to crest.

• Frequency= number of wavelengths that pass a

given point in 1s.

• As frequency increases, wavelength becomes

smaller.

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 Can a wave be a particle?

• In 1887, Heinrich Hertz discovered that shining light on a

metal caused electrons to be ejected.

• Whether or not electrons were ejected depended upon

frequency not the amplitude of the light!

• Years later, Albert Einstein explained Hertz’s discovery: EM

waves can behave as a particle called a photon whose
energy depends on the frequency of the waves.

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 Can a wave be a particle?

• Electrons fired at two

slits actually form an
interference pattern
similar to patterns made
by waves

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 Electromagnetic Waves

How they are Kind of wave Sometimes behave

formed as Waves
Transverse with
Waves are made alternating electric or as
by vibrating electric and magnetic fields
Particles (photons)
charges that can
travel through
space

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 Electromagnetic Spectrum
• Whole range of frequencies is called the
electromagnetic spectrum.

• Different parts of spectrum interact with matter in

different ways.

• The ones human can see are called visible light, a

small part of the whole spectrum.

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 Wavelength vs Frequency

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 The Frequency bands

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 What are microwaves?

• Microwaves are radio waves with wavelengths less than 30

cm. The higher frequency & shorter wavelength.

• Cell phones and satellites use microwaves between 1 cm &

20 cm for communication.

• In microwave ovens, a vibrating electric field causes water

molecules to rotate billions of times per second causing
friction, creating Thermal Energy which heats the food.

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 How does radar work?

• Radio Detecting And Ranging or radar is used to find

position and speed of objects by bouncing radio waves off
the object.

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 Infrared Waves
• EM with wavelengths between 1mm & 750 billionths of a
meter.
• Used daily in remote controls, to read CD-ROMs
• Every objects gives off infrared waves; hotter objects give off
more than cooler ones.
• Satellites can identify types of plants growing in a region
with infrared detectors

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 Visible Light

• Range of EM humans can see from 750 billionths to fraction

of a meter.
• You see different wavelengths as colors.
• Blue has shortest
• Red is the longest
• Light looks white if all colors are present

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 X Rays and Gamma Rays

• EM waves with shortest

wavelength & highest
frequency
• High Energy- go through skin
& muscle
• High level exposure causes
cancer

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 X Rays and Gamma Rays

• EM with wavelengths shorter • The composite image shows

than 10 trillionths of a meter. the all sky gamma ray
• Highest energy, can travel background.
through several centimeters
of lead.
• Both can be used in radiation
therapy to kill diseased cells.

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 Identify which statement is not true:

A. Gamma rays are low frequency waves.

B. X rays are high-energy waves.
C. Gamma rays are used to treat diseases.

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 Fill in the
boxes with the
waves of the
EM spectrum.

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 Radio Communication using EM Waves
• Radio stations change sound to EM waves & then your radio
receiver changes the EM waves back to sound waves again.

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How does a radio receive different
stations?
• Each station broadcasts at a certain frequency which you
tune in by choosing their frequency.

• Carrier wave - the frequency of the EM wave that a station

uses.

• Microphones convert sound waves to a changing electric

current or electronic signal containing the words & music.

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How does a radio receive different
stations?
• The modified carrier wave vibrates electrons in the station’s
antennae creating a radio wave that travels out in all
directions at the speed of light to your radio antennae.

• The vibrating electrons produce a changing electric current

which your radio separates the carrier wave from the signal
to make the speakers vibrate creating sound waves.

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 What is AM radio?
In AM amplitude changes but frequency does not. AM
frequencies range from 540,000 Hz to 1,6000,000 Hz usually
listed in kHz.

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Shahid
 What is FM radio?
• In FM radio stations transmit broadcast information by
changing the frequency of the carrier wave. The strength
of FM waves is always the same and is in megahertz.
Mega=million

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Shahid
 Electromagnetic Waves

Concept of Travelling Waves

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 Traveling Waves
A traveling wave is the
propagation of motion
(disturbance) in a medium.

Reflection
The one-dimensional (1D) case
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 Traveling Wave in Higher Dimensions

Plane waves in 3D

Example: sound waves

wavefront

Watch animation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_wave

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 A line source makes a cylindrical wave

wavefronts

Cylindrical wave (3D; top view)

Make a cylindrical wave from

Water surface wave (2D) a plane wave
(Circular wave)
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A point source makes
a spherical wave

Point source

wavefronts

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 Electromagnetic Wave
E

Somehow start with a changing electric field E, say E  sint

E
The changing electric field induces a magnetic field, B   cos t
t
If the induced magnetic field is changing with time, it will in turn induce an
electric field
B
E  sin t
t
And so on and so on....
Just as the mechanical wave on a string.
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Mathematical Expression of the Traveling Wave
A traveling wave is the propagation of motion (disturbance) in a medium.
y
At time 0,
y = f(x)

y
vt
At time t,
y = f(xvt)

This is the general expression

x of Traveling waves.

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 Maxwell’s Equations
Electric Magnetic
Gauss' Law Gauss' Law

Charges make E fields No magnetic monopoles

Ampere's Law Faraday's Law

Currents make B fields Changing B make E fields

(so does changing E)
 Next Lecture

• Maxwell Equations

• Wave Equation

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