PH20014: Electromagnetism1: Dr Paul Snow

Poyntings Theorem in Source Free Vacuum

Maxwells Equations:

For a source free vacuum,

B
D
(M3) and H J
(M4).
t
t

0 , 0 and J 0 . Thus, as B 0 H and D 0 E ,

E - 0

We take a scalar product of

H
t

H 0

with both sides of Maxwell 4 gives,

E H E 0
For any vector field, a standard result says that
So, here letting

and

E
.
t

E - 0

(A B) B A A B

allows us to change the LHS:

H E (H E) E 0

But,

E
.
t

E
.
t

(1)

H
1 (H H)
H
so, H E H 0
0
t
2
t
t

The factor of arises from linking

H2
H
and
. Thus, we can return to (1) and write
t
t

it as,

0 H 2

1 E 2
E H 0
2 t
2
t

where we have changed the order of

and

E
.
E and also simplified the term with
t

Now, we rearrange the terms and take the volume integral of both sides. We get

E H dv t 2
v

E 2 0 H 2 dv
2

We can now apply the divergence theorem to simplify the left hand side and we obtain the
following equation and assign the meaning of the terms as shown below,

E H dS t 2
S

Total power
leaving the
volume through
the closed surface

E 2 0 H 2 dv
2

Rate of decrease of the

energy stored in
electric and magnetic
fields