Introduction to Electromagnetism and

Its Application to Materials Science

: Week 1-2

Seungbum Hong
KAIST
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
2-1 Understanding physics

 The physicist needs a facility in looking at problems from several points of view.
 The exact analysis of real physical problems is usually quite complicated, and any particular physical
situation may be too complicated to analyze directly by solving the differential equation.
 However, one can still get a very good idea of the behavior of a system if one has some feel for the
character of the solution in different circumstances.
 There is only one precise way of presenting the laws, and that is by means of differential equations.
 Dirac said, “I understand what an equation means if I have a way of figuring out the characteristics of i
ts solution without actually solving it.”
 Our approach: Take first the complete laws, and then step back and apply them to simple situations,
developing the physical ideas as we go along.

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 2-2 Scalar and vector fields - T and h
 Ultimate goal: to explain the meaning of the laws of electrodynamics
 Approach: via the mathematics of vector fields

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_product

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_product

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 Two important equalities from the calculus

when ∆x, ∆y, ∆z → 0

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 Field: a quantity which depends upon position in space
– Scalar field: a field characterized at each point by a single number - a scalar (ex: temperature)
• Imagine “contours” which are imaginary surfaces drawn through all points for which the field ha
s the same value (ex: isotherms)

Source: http://weather.cnn.com/weather/forecast.jsp

– Vector field: a field characterized at each point by a vector that varies from point to point (ex: heat
flow)

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 Heat flow, h: a vector, which points in the direction of flow and has a magnitude equal to the amount
of thermal energy that passes, per unit time and per unit area, through an infinitesimal surface
element at right angles to the direction of flow.

Where ∆J is the thermal energy that passes per unit time through the surface element ∆a
and ef is a unit vector in the direction of flow.

 The heat flow (per unit time and per unit area)
through any surface element whose unit normal is
n, is given by h⋅n.

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2-3 Derivatives of fields - the gradient

 How shall we take the derivative of the temperature with respect to position?

 ∂T/∂x? neither scalar nor vector because it takes different values for different x-axes.
– Scalar and vector are invariant upon the choice of the coordinates.

 It is true only if, when we rotate the coordinate system, the components of the vector transform
among themselves in the correct way.

 Ask a question whose answer is independent of the coordinate system, and try to express the answer
in an “invariant” form.
– Example: if , and if A and B are vectors, S is a scalar. Likewise, if A is a vector, S a scalar
and there are three numbers B1, B2, and B3 that satisfy the relationship
, then B1, B2, B3 are the components Bx, By, Bz of some vector B.

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 Prove

 ∆T=T2-T1= a scalar (invariant upon the choice of the coordinates), when T1 and T2 are temperatures at
P1 and P2 which are separated by the small interval ∆R = (∆x, ∆y, ∆z).

T2=T(x+∆x, y+∆y, z+∆z)

when ∆x, ∆y, ∆z → 0

T1=T(x,y,z)

when ∆x, ∆y, ∆z → 0

 Since ∆R = (∆x, ∆y, ∆z) is a vector and ∆T a scalar, it turns out that

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 ∇T = gradient of T = del-T

 The equation says that the difference in temperature between two nearby points is the dot
product of the gradient of T and the vector displacement between the points.

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 Prove in a different way.

 We shall show that the components of ∇T transform in just the same way that components of R do
under a rotation of the coordinate system.

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 Let’s take P1=(x,y,z) and P2=(x+∆x,y,z), then

0 0
 In a prime system, P1=(x’,y’,z’) and P2=(x’+∆x’,y+∆y’,z’),
and

 Comparing two equations above, we see that

vs

 ∇T is definitely a vector field derived from the scalar field T.

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2-4 The operator ∇
 Operator equation without a scalar field

 Vector operator (hungry for something to differentiate)

 ∇ is an operator, and it means nothing by itself.

 ∇ follows most of the ordinary vector algebra, but some exceptions exist.

vs The order is important!

 ∇T has the direction of the steepest uphill in slope in T.

When is ∆T the maximum?

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2-5 Operations with ∇
 Combine ∇ with a vector.

A scalar field

We think of h as a physical quantity that depends on position in space, and not strictly as a
mathematical function of three variables.

 ∇⋅h = div h = “divergence of h”

 ∇×h = curl h = “curl of h”

y

x z

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 Maxwell’s Equations (in vector equations)

ρ(rho): “electric charge density”

j: “electric current density”

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2-6 The differential equation of heat flow
 Heat flow in a slab

Where J: thermal energy that passes per unit time through the slab,
κ(kappa): thermal conductivity
A: area of the faces
d: distance between the plates

 Heat flow in an arbitrary shape ⇒ consider a slab on a miniature

scale

 It is the generalization to arbitrary cases of the special relation for

rectangular slabs.

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 2-7 Second derivatives of vector fields
 Why not second derivatives?

All possible combinations

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 (curl(gradT)) for any scalar function

 div (curl h)

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 Two useful theorems
– Theorem 1: If the curl A is zero, then A is always the gradient of something−there is some scalar
field ψ (psi) such that A is equal to grad ψ.

If

there is a

such that

– Theorem 2: If you come across a vector field D for which div D is zero, then you can conclude
that D is the curl of some vector field C.

If

there is a

such that

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 The Laplacian ∇2: a scalar operator

 The Laplacian ∇2 on a vector

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 Curl of Curl…

Wrong order!!

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 Summary of second derivatives

All possible combinations

A scalar field

A vector field (nothing special)

A vector field

Do you see why we haven’t tried to invent a new vector operator (∇×∇)?

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 2-8 Pitfalls

 Be careful when applying our knowledge of ordinary vector algebra to the algebra of the operator ∇.

vs

The two operators ∇ are not equal, because the first one operates on one function,ψ; the other
operates on a different function, φ.

 The rules are simple and nice when we use rectangular coordinates, however it gets
complicated if we change to cylindrical or spherical coordinates. So we shall express all of our
vector fields in terms of their x-, y-, and z-components when we write our vector differential
equations out in components.

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