PHYS332 - Infinite Plane Waves

1: Griffiths 9-1. By explicit differentiation, check that the functions f1 , f2 , and f3 satisfy
the wave equation. Show that f4 and f5 do not.

2 A
f1 (z, t) = Ae−b(z−vt) f2 (z, t) = A sin[b(z − vt)] f3 (z, t) =
b(z − vt)2 + 1
2 +vt)
f4 (z, t) = Ae−b(bz f5 (z, t) = A sin(bz) cos(bvt)3

2: Griffiths 9-2. Show that the standing wave f (z, t) = A sin(kz) cos(kvt) satisfies the
wave equation and express it as the sum of a wave traveling to the left and a wave
traveling to the right.

3: Wangsness 24-5. A plane electromagnetic wave traveling in a vacuum is given by

~ = ŷE0 ei(kz−ωt) where E0 is real. A circular loop of radius a, N turns, and resistance
E
R is located with its center at the origin. The loop is oriented so that a diameter lies
along the z axis and the plane of the loop makes an angle θ with the y axis. Find the
emf induced in the loop as a function of time. Assume that a  λ. (Why?)

4: Wangsness 24-12. A plane wave travels in the positive z direction in a conductor with
~ = (E
real conductivity. Start with E ~ real + iE
~ imag )e−βz ei(αz−ωt) .

(a) Find the instantaneous and time average power loss per unit volume due to resistive
heating (W = J~ · E
~ and hW i = 1 <(J~ · E~∗ )) as a function of z. You may assume that
2
Ohm’s Law is valid for this conductor.

(b) Find the total power loss per unit area between z = 0 and z = ∞.

(c) Find the time-averaged Poynting vector as a function of z.

(d) Compare the value of your result for (b) with the magnitude of your result in (c)
evaluated at z = 0. To finish this, you will need the following which we discussed in
class 2αβ = ωµσ and v = ω/α. Is your answer reasonable? Explain.

5: Wangsness 24-13. Consider a plane wave that is a superposition of two independent

orthogonal plane waves and has the form E ~ = x̂Eα ei(kz−ωt+ϑα ) + ŷEβ ei(kz−ωt+ϑβ ) where
~ and show that it equals the sum of the average Poynting vectors for
k is real. Find hSi
the components.

6: Griffiths 9-18.

(a) Suppose you embed some free charge in a piece of glass. About how long would
it take for the charge to flow to the surface? Assume that nglass ≈ 1.5 and that
σglass ≈ 10−12 Ω−1 m−1
 (b) Silver is an excellent conductor, but it’s expensive. Suppose you were designing a
microwave experiment to operate at a frequency of 1010 Hz. How thick would you make
the silver coatings? Use σAg = 6.29 × 107 Ω−1 m−1 .

(c) Find the wavelength and propagation speed in copper for radio waves at 1 MHz.
Compare your results with the corresponding values in air (or vacuum). Use σCu =
5.95 × 107 Ω−1 m−1 .

7: Griffiths 9-19.
p
(a) Show that the skin depth in a poor conductor (σ  ω) is (2/σ) /µ (independent of
frequency). Find the skin depth (in meters) for (pure) water. Use  = 80.10 , µ = µ0
and σ = 4 × 10−6 Ω−1 m−1 .

(b) Show that the skin depth in a good conductor (σ  ω) is λ/2π (where λ is the
wavelength in the conductor). Find the skin depth (in nanometers) for a typical metal
(σ ≈ 107 Ω−1 m−1 ) in the visible range (ω ≈ 1015 rad/s), assuming  ≈ 0 and µ ≈ µ0 ).
Why are metals opaque?

(c) Show that in a good conductor the magnetic field lags behind the electric field by
45◦ and find the ratio of their amplitudes. For a numerical example, use the ”typical
metal” in part (b).

8: Griffiths 9-20 - (part a).

Calculate the (time-averaged) energy density of an electromagnetic plane wave in a

conducting medium. Show that the magnetic contribution always dominates. You
may start from:

~ t) = E0 e−βz cos(αz − ωt + δE )x̂

E(z,
~ t) = B0 e−βz cos(αz − ωt + δE + Ω)ŷ
B(z,

~ = |k| ~ and you will certainly need the expressions for α and β from
Recall that B ω
k̂ ×E
class.

9: Wangsness 24-17. A certain plane wave has a propagation vector ~k = (314x̂ + 314ŷ +
444ẑ) m−1 . Assume that it is traveling in a vacuum and find the wavelength, the
~ and B
frequency, and the angles made with the x, y and z axes. Also find a specific E ~
which would be consistent with this plane wave.

10: Griffiths 9-12. Find all elements of the Maxwell stress tensor for a monochromatic
plane wave traveling through the vacuum in the z direction and linearly polarized in
the x direction:

~ t) = E0 cos(kz − ωt + δ)x̂
E(z,
 ~ t) = 1 E0 cos(kz − ωt + δ)ŷ.
B(z,
c
Does your answer make sense? Remember that Tij represents the momentum flux
density. How is the momentum flux density related to the energy density in this case?

11: Griffiths 9-8. f~(z, t) = Aei(kz−ωt) n̂ describes the most general linearly polarized wave
on a string. Linear (or “plane”) polarization (so called because the displacement is
parallel to a fixed vector n̂) results from the combination of horizontally and vertically
polarized waves of the same phase:

f~(z, t) = A cos θei(kz−ωt) x̂ + A sin θei(kz−ωt) ŷ.

If the two components are of equal amplitude, but out of phase by 900 , the result is a
circularly polarized wave. In that case:

π
f~(z, t) = Aei(kz−ωt) x̂ + Aei(kz−ωt+ 2 ) ŷ.

In each equation above, you may assume that A is real and that the real part of the
expression is what actually matters.

(a) At a fixed point z, show that the string moves in a circle about the z axis. Does it
rotate clockwise or counterclockwise as you look down the axis towards the origin?
How would you construct a wave rotating the other way? (In optics, the clockwise case
is called right circular polarization and the counterclockwise case left circular
polarization.)

(b) Sketch the string at time t = 0.

(c) How would you shake the string in order to produce a circularly polarized wave?