Fields and Waves I Homepage Fall 1996

Last Updated 10 December 1996

Staff/Students | Announcements | Course Reserves | Design Projects | Courses | Helpful Info

Course Staff/Students

Pre-Winter Solstice Announcements

9 - 13 December

  1. Design Project Information -- Please check the Second Design Project webpage for updated information motivated by student questions. So far, students have shown me two very interesting websites that I did not know about before. These are Messi and Paoloni, an Italian cable company (brought to us by Tom Poltrino) and EE 535 - Telecommunications Transmission Technologies, a course from WPI (brought to us by Rob Smith).
  2. Quiz III will be handed back first thing Monday morning. Class on Monday ... our last class ... will address three issues:
  3. Extra credit project -- If you want to have the performance of your paperclip launcher evaluated, stop by Prof. Connor's office at one of the following times: Monday at 4 pm, Tuesday at 4 pm, Wednesday at 11 am and 1:30 pm, Thursday at 11 am. Please check this website before coming, since this schedule might change. Also, additional times will be posted for later in the week.
  4. Grading -- The grade distribution for Quiz III is as follows: 87-100 A, 77-86 B, 67-76 C, 57 - 66 D. This distribution splits the difference between the first two quizzes. The method for determining your pre-final grade will be posted no later than Tuesday morning. However, as noted in the syllabus, your best guide for guessing your pre-final grade will be your quiz grades.
  5. EXTRA CREDIT -- The extra credit points on the quiz can be added to the problem session grade, just like the other extra credit points you may have received before. Please check the posting on pre-final grades, when it is available, for further info on this.
  6. Pre-Final Grades -- This is a little complicated, so please read carefully. Since we do not have a grade for the last design project, there will be some uncertainty in the pre-final grade. Keep in mind that should your total be within 5 points of a cutoff, you possibly can move up or down, based on your project grade. Again, the sooner you can get your project in, the sooner you will know your actual pre-final grade. The first step in calculating your grade is to figure out your extra credit points. These points can be earned from the wave applet you might have done a couple of weeks ago, any points over 50 on the last design project, the last collection of random questions on the third quiz, and the paperclip launcher. (So far only one group has managed to launch further than 15 feet.) These points can be added to your problem session grade until your total reaches 200 points. Thus, the maximum grade you can obtain for problem sessions is 200. The maximum grade you can count for the first design project is 50. Thus, if you were given more than 50 points, you can only count the extra points as extra credit. This makes the maximum possible grade for the problem sessions and the first design project = 250, which quite a few students came close to. Next, add up your quiz grades. The combination of the three distributions for the quizzes is 262-300 A, 232-261 B, 202-231 C, 172-201 D. Now, multiply your quiz total by .5 to obtain a grade that replaces the final exam. Finally, add your problem session (200 max), your design project (50 max), your quizzes (300 max), and half your quizzes (150 max) for a total of up to 700 points. (The student with the largest total has 674.) The pre-final grade distribution is then: 612-700 A, 542-611 B, 472-541 C, 402-471 D. Remember that the final is only optional if you have completed all assignments.

2 - 6 December

  1. Review/Extra Sessions for Quiz III:
  2. Additional Office Hours
  3. Take home problems for Quiz III are now available outside Prof. Connor's office.
  4. Comment on take home problems: On the figures where you can find lower case z = 0, this refers to position, not impedance. Impedance is upper case. Position is lower case.
  5. Quiz III: The material covered on this quiz includes the sections from Chapter 7 on waves and phasors (sections 7.5 - 7.7), all of Chapter 8 except section 8.4 on group velocity, and the first five sections of Chapter 9 (9.1 - 9.5). You should also know the general conceptual ideas for waveguides that are being discussed in lecture this week. If you missed lecture, they are discussed in example 10-4 and in the first two paragraphs of section 10-6.3. There is a list of practice problems included in the course syllabus. However, they are not all equally useful when preparing for this quiz. First, you should make sure that you fully understand the most important examples from the text. These are: 7-8, 8-1, 8-4, 8-8, 8-9, 8-10, 8-11, 8-12, 8-13, 8-14, 8-15, 9-1, 9-3, 9-4, 9-5, 9-6, 9-8, 9-9, 9-10,9-11, 9-12. The list of problems is: 8-6, 8-10, 8-12, 8-20, 8-22, 8-23, 8-27, 8-28, 8-29, 8-30, 8-31, 8-33, 8-36, 8-37, 8-38, 8-39, 8-40, 8-41, 9-9, 9-10, 9-16, 9-17, 9-18, 9-19, 9-20, 9-23, 9-24, 9-26, 9-27, 9-30, 9-31, 9-33, 9-34, 9-35, 9-36, 9-37, 9-38. Note that many of these problems are similar. Make sure you at least try one of each type. Also, try to recognize the common features of all the problems.

18 - 22 November

  1. The first question for the last problem session (#10) was handed out in lecture on Wednesday. If it is not already too obvious, this problem is the transmission line analog of last Wednesday's plane wave problem. It should be very useful to note the similarities in these problems.
  2. The problem session this Friday will not be due until next Tuesday, thanks to David's willingness to grade them later than usual. However, there is an activity that must be done in the problem session room or arranged for at some other time. Please watch this space for further information.
  3. There is now a collection of information on Waves , that you may, from time-to-time, find useful. Sometime soon, this list will provide simple access to a large number of m-files. For now, only a few are listed.
  4. Information on the Second Design Project is now available. Please be sure to check the due dates.
  5. There will be a bonus design project to build a paper clip launcher . The points from this project can be applied to the problem session grade. There is some information available on this from previous semesters.
  6. Update on extra credit. It is possible to accumulate problem session points up to a perfect 20 for all ten, or 200 points. Thus, if you already have 185 points, for example, you can only earn 15 extra credit points.

4 - 8 November

  1. Since we are beginning serious consideration of waves this week, I will be recommending some useful websites to look at. The first is a java applet at: Superposition of Waves which shows what waves look like when superimposed. You will need a JAVA enabled brouser to view this applet.
  2. The first problem for this week's problem session is now available.
  3. Extra Credit: There has been some confusion among students, and at least one member of the course staff, regarding grading policies in this course. While it was true in previous years that one or two problem session grades could be dropped, this policy is no longer in effect. The change was made when we decided to make the final exam optional. To be able to exercise the option of not taking the final, students must complete all problem sessions, design projects, and quizzes. This policy is explained clearly in the course syllabus. However, since there has been some confusion about this, we will offer a few opportunities to earn extra credit points that can be applied to the problem session grades. The first such opportunity involves the JAVA applet above. For 5 points, run the applet for the cases you considered in part (d) of this week's problem session. The wave images update when you click on them, so I found that a clearer picture of what the waves are doing can be obtained by clicking several times quickly on the image. Describe what you see. Plot the result if possible. This should be handed in with the problem session on Friday. Applets are not always stable, nor are they reliable. Report any bugs you observe.
  4. There are several JAVA applets of interest to engineering and computer science students at Gamelan. Some are very interesting. Some will crash your computer. Many are in other languages besides English. Some take a very long time to download. Such is life.
  5. Friday's Lecture will include a lot of useful information on how to do the problem session.. It might be a very good idea to attend this lecture! Also, the second problem will be handed out at the beginning of lecture.
  6. The solution to the second quiz is now posted. If you have any problems with the grading, please talk to the course staff on Friday. For those of you who did not attend Monday's lecture, the quiz grades were as follows: 85-100 A, 75-84 B, 65-74 C, 55-64 D.

28 October - 1 November

  1. Review Sessions: There will be two review sessions, one Tuesday at 6 pm in Ricketts 211 and one Wednesday at 5 pm in Sage 4101.
  2. The take home question for this quiz is available outside Prof. Connor's office (JEC 6002).
  3. Quiz II -- The material covered on this quiz includes all of Chapters 5 and 6 and the first two sections of Chapter 7 (7-1 and 7-2). There is a list of practice problems included in the course syllabus. However, they are not all equally useful when preparing for this quiz. First, you should make sure that you fully understand the most important examples from the text. These are: 5-2, 6-1,2,3,10,11,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,23, 7-1,2,4. You should notice that this includes lots of coaxial cables, toroids, and solenoids. The same is true for the problems. Note that in the following list of problems that there are, many times, several that are very similar. You should look for such problems and make use of their common features. The list of problems is: 5-10,15,21, 6-3,14,15,17,21a,22a,27,28,32,33,34,36,37,38,39,40,44,46,48,52,53, 7-2,7,10.
  4. There is some useful material in the Circuits book that you might want to take a look at. In Carlson's book (published by Wiley), the relevant sections are 5.2 on Inductors and 8.2,8.3,8.4 on Mutual Inducatance. While it is not a topic for this quiz, there is also a good discussin of phasors in 6.1. If you used a different book, there should still be similar sections to read over.
  5. For the takehome problem, keep in mind that the methods for finding forces between currents are analogous to the methods for finding forces between charges.

21-25 October

  1. Design Project Testing: I have the test setup for determining motor speeds in my office. If any of you wish to try your designs before Friday, you may do so. Since I am not always in my office, please send me email or call me before you come. -- KC
  2. Design Project Materials: I am just about out of magnets, but I do have wire left. I will be getting some more today or tomorrow. Thus, if your design looks like it would work better with different wire, please stop by my office to get some. -- KC
  3. Design Project Hint: Some people have had difficulties making their motors work when they tried to use small wire. For a first try, I recommend a gauge between 18 and 22. -- KC
  4. Class photos are now available.

7-11 October

  1. Quiz I has been graded and the papers are now available in the mailboxes around the corner from the elevators on the 6th floor of the JEC. The grade distribution is fairly simple: A(90-100), B(80-89), C(70-79), D(60-69). The grade distributions for the other quizzes and the final will not necessarily be the same. We always leave open the possibility of adjusting downward.
  2. The solution for Quiz I has not yet been posted, due to some confusion among the course staff. It should be up before the end of the week.
  3. The first Design Project will be due on 25 October. This project is a new version of the motor design project done in the spring of 1995. Information on Design Project #1
  4. The design project information will be updated when necessary, so please be sure to check it regularly.
  5. Both problems for this week's problem session were handed out on Wednesday. The first problem for next week will be handed out this Friday.

9-13 September

  1. Problem Session I is graded and the papers are in the course mailboxes on the sixth floor of the JEC.
  2. Please look inside your Problem Session I paper and find your course alias. Look for the name in purple. We will be using these aliases to list course grades on the bulletin board outside Audrey Hayner's office. If for some reason you object to the name you were given, please ask Audrey for something new. You should check the posted grades on a regular basis to be sure that our records are correct.
  3. The first part of Problem Session II is available. We made some measurements of the home made coaxial cable that uses one of the electrodes of a Theremin. The inner conductor has a radius of 7/20 inch, the outer conductor 2.5 inches, and the length is 14 inches. The insulator is a combination of paper and air.

Course Reserves

Copies of Quizzes, Problem Sessions, etc. and their solutions from recent semesters are maintained by Folsom Library Staff and are accessible at the following:

ELECTRONIC RESERVES (Profs. Connor and Salon)

ELECTRONIC RESERVES (Profs. Crowley and Pearlman)

There is also a website for Spring 1996 Fields and Waves I (Profs. Crowley and Pearlman)

Design Projects

Fields and Waves Courses Throughout the World

Quite a large number of engineering schools offer courses called Fields and Waves. A partial list includes:

  1. Lines, Fields and Waves
  2. Electromagnetic Fields and Waves
  3. Electromagnetic Fields and Waves
  4. Electromagnetic Fields and Waves

Helpful Info

A good introduction to Matlab, for people who have not used it before is available from Vanderbilt: Vanderbilt Matlab Notes

In addition, MathWorks has a homepage that provides a great deal of information on Matlab. MathWorks Homepage

There is a column published in alternative newspapers that some of you may be acquainted with that sometimes addresses issues associated with this course. I have to warn the squeamish that the topics and the language are not limited to scietific or usual academic standards. Howevever, I recommend looking at: The Straight Dope Archive You should be able to identify the old columns that relate to this course or to electrical engineering in general. Also, the Straight Dope is now a cable TV show. Look for it.

Loads of fun for people who like to do a little science at home, some a little on the dangerous side, can be found at a website maintained by Bill Beaty of Seattle: Amateur Scientist. There is also a very good organization, the SOCIETY FOR AMATEUR SCIENTISTS, whose executive director -- Shawn Carlson -- now writes the Amateur Scientist column in SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.

Another tutorial from the math dept at Utah: Info on Matlab from Utah

Something to try: In my public directory /home/02/connor/public you will find an m-file that animates the interaction of a wave with a material boundary. Try it the next time you are using Matlab. It shows some very interesting phenomena. It was written by a Fields student who wishes to remain anonymous. (M-file name: forfun.m)

A very useful reference on resistors, capacitors, inductors has been created at Penn State: CEDCC Component Database Server

From time-to-time, I receive announcements of jobs that may be of interest to ECSE students. I will post these in JOBS FOR ECSE STUDENTS . Isn't that a clever title for this website?

Some Simple Electromagnetic Devices

The following items address some simple applications of electromagnets that should help build intuition about this conceptually rich subject.

REFERENCE MATERIALS

In answering the many questions that the design projects have produced, I have found that most of you are not well acquainted with some of the really good standard reference books an electrical engineer might find useful. I will post a few recommendations here from time-to-time. Most of the books I recommend, I have in my office, if they have not been borrowed by someone. If you want to look at them stop by sometime.

Master Handbook of ELECTRONIC TABLES AND FORMULAS by Martin Clifford -- This is the fifth edition (1992) of a very interesting collection of infor for electrical engineers. There are 25 chapters with such titles as "Filters," "Wire, Cable and Connectors," Analog and Digital Signal Transmission."

The CRC HANDBOOK of CHEMISTRY and PHYSICS -- This comes out in a new edition every year, just like an almanac. It contains a wealth of information on properties of materials, including electrical properties like conductivity of various wire materials, dielectric constansts of insulators, properties of magnetic alloys, etc. Its a great big book, bigger than most phone books so it impresses people when they see it on your shelf. Since they come out every year, it is possible to purchase last year's edition at a reduced rate. I have three of them, but the latest is 1980, so I suppose it is time to buy a new one.

THE ART OF ELECTRONICS by Horowitz and Hill. This book can be found around here because the Physics majors use it in their electronics course. If you know a Physics major, ask to see the book sometime. It has great info on practical electronics.

Corrections for Unit X

Finally. Should you wish to learn a little bit about Professor Connor's research, you can check the homepage for the
  • Plasma Dynamics Lab
    Both Prof. Connor and Prof. Salon work with Magsoft, a local company that develops and applies software tools for electromagnetics problems.