Comparing Representations of Electromagnetic Waves

Highlights of the activity

1. This small group activity is designed to help upper-division undergraduate students understand what's planar about plane waves.
2. Students work in small groups and compare common representations of plane waves, discussing which features of plane waves are depicted by each representation and which are ignored.
3. The whole class discussion summarizes the features of plane waves and the common representations of plane waves used by professional physicists.

Reasons to spend class time on the activity

Professional physicists use many different representations of electromagnetic plane waves. Many of these representations obscure what is “planar” about a plane wave. We use this activity, often as homework, at the end of a sequence of activities on plane waves. See Plane Wave Sequence.

Reflections

• Reflections from the original implementation.

• Reflections from "official" adapters/adopters.

• Reflections from the general public.

Instructor's Guide

• Wiki version