Visualizing Electromagnetic Plane Waves

Highlights of the activity

1. This computer visualization activity is designed to help upper-division undergraduate students visualize electromagentic plane waves.
2. Students use a computer algebra worksheet to explore the electric and magnetic field vectors of a given electromagnetic plane wave by choosing the wave vector $\vec{k}$ themselves.
3. The whole class wrap-up discussion summarizes how the electric field, magnetic field and wave vectors are related, allowing students to visualization what is planar about electromagnetic plane waves.

Reasons to spend class time on the activity

Most representations of plane waves used by professionals do not show all of the aspects of a plane wave. This one does.

Reflections

• Reflections from the original implementation.

• Reflections from "official" adapters/adopters.

• Reflections from the general public.

Instructor's Guide

• Wiki version

Maple Worksheet

emplanewaveem.mws (Maple 11 Classic)

Mathematica Notebook

emplanewaveem.nb