University of Duhok Subject: Electromagnetic Fields

College of Engineering Stage: Third Year

Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. Instructor: Dr. Yasser A. Fadhel

Lecture No.1
Vector Analysis
1.1 Introduction
In electromagnetics, vectors are used extensively as the main tool of
analysis. This lectuer expands the scope of vector algebra to a level needed
throughout the rest of the lectures of EMF (Electromagnetic Fields). It also
introduces the cylindrical and spherical coordinate systems, as all three
coordinate systems are used in electromagnetics. As the notation, both for the
vectors and the coordinate systems, differs from one text to another, a thorough
understanding of the notation employed herein is essential for setting up the
problems and obtaining solutions. In addition, more vector operations (gradient,
divergence, and curl) will be introduced later in coming lectures.

1.2 Vector Notation

❖ Vectors are quantities having magnitude and direction.
❖ Scalars are quantities having magnitude only.
❖ The vectors will be denoted by boldface symbols like; A, B, E or H etc.
for simplicity.
❖ A Unit Vector for A will be indicated as aA, and for B will be indicated
as aB.
The unit vector in the direction of a vector A is determined by dividing A by its
absolute value:

By use of the unit vectors ax, ay, az along the x, y, and z axes, respectively, of a
Cartesian coordinate system, an arbitrary vector can be written in component
form as:

In terms of components, the absolute value of a vector is defined by:

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University of Duhok Subject: Electromagnetic Fields
College of Engineering Stage: Third Year
Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. Instructor: Dr. Yasser A. Fadhel

EXAMPLE 1 Find the vector drawn from point M (2, 2, 0) to point N (4, 5, 6)?

Solution: To find the vector it has to subtract the three components of both of
these points as (End – Start), and the End point here is point N (4, 5, 6), while
the Start is point M (2, 2, 0). So that:
A = (4-2) ax + (5-2) ay + (6-0) az → A = 2ax + 3ay + 6az.
Its magnitude is:

Its direction is given by the unit vector:

1.3 Vector Algebra

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University of Duhok Subject: Electromagnetic Fields
College of Engineering Stage: Third Year
Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. Instructor: Dr. Yasser A. Fadhel

EXAMPLE 2

However, ax · ax = ay · ay = az · az = 1 because the cos θ in the dot product is

unity when the angle is zero. And when θ = 90°, cos θ is zero; hence, all other
dot products of the unit vectors are zero. Thus,

where θ is the smaller angle between A and B, and an is a unit vector normal to
the plane determined by A and B when they are drawn from a common point.
There are two normals to the plane, so further specification is needed. The
normal selected is the one in the direction of advance of a right-hand screw when
A is turned toward B (Fig. below). Because of this direction requirement, the
commutative law does not apply to the cross product; instead,

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University of Duhok Subject: Electromagnetic Fields
College of Engineering Stage: Third Year
Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. Instructor: Dr. Yasser A. Fadhel

EXAMPLE 3

1.4 Coordinate Systems

In addition to the Cartesian coordinate system, the circular cylindrical and
the spherical coordinate systems will be used. All three will be examined
together in order to illustrate the similarities and the differences.
A point P is described by three coordinates, in Cartesian (x, y, z), in circular
cylindrical (r, 𝜙, z), and in spherical (r, θ, 𝜙), as shown below.

Sometimes there will be certain cases which deals with fixing of one of the
three dimensions or keeping one of them unchanged to produce a plane, this
plane will be called x = constant plane or y = constant plane etc., and same thing
for other coordinate systems which will produce different shapes of planes as
shown below.

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University of Duhok Subject: Electromagnetic Fields
College of Engineering Stage: Third Year
Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. Instructor: Dr. Yasser A. Fadhel

The figure below shows the three unit vectors at point P. In the Cartesian
system the unit vectors have fixed directions, independent of the location of P.
This is not true for the other two systems (except in the case of az). Each unit
vector is normal to its coordinate surface and is in the direction in which the
coordinate increases.

Notice that all these systems are right-handed:

The component forms of a vector in the three systems are:

It should be noted that the components Ax, Ar, 𝑨𝝓 , etc., are not generally
constants but more often are functions of the coordinates in that particular
system.
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University of Duhok Subject: Electromagnetic Fields
College of Engineering Stage: Third Year
Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. Instructor: Dr. Yasser A. Fadhel

1.5 Differential Volume, Surface, and Line Elements

There are relatively few problems in electromagnetics that can be solved

without some sort of integration along a curve, over a surface, or throughout a
volume. Hence, the corresponding differential elements must be clearly
understood.
When the coordinates of point P are expanded to (x + dx, y + dy, z + dz) or (r +
dr, 𝜙 + 𝑑𝜙, z + dz), or (r + dr, θ + dθ, 𝜙 + 𝑑𝜙), a differential volume dv is
formed. To the first order in infinitesimal quantities, the differential volume is,
in all three coordinate systems, a rectangular box. The value of dv in each system
is given in the figure shown below.

From the above figure the areas of the surface elements that bound the
differential volume may also be read. For instance, in spherical coordinates, the
differential surface element perpendicular to ar is
dS = (r dθ) (r sin θ 𝑑𝜙) = r2 sin θ dθ 𝑑𝜙
The differential line element, dl is the diagonal through P. Thus,