Displacement Current,

Maxwell’s Equations,
Wave Equations

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 Outline

Maxwell’s Equations

Displacement Current

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Maxwell’s Equations

Is there something missing?

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 Maxwell’s Equations
One Last Modification:
Displacement Current

“Displacement Current”
has nothing to do with
displacement and nothing to do
with current

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 Ampere’s Law: Capacitor
Consider a charging capacitor:
Use Ampere’s Law to
calculate the
magnetic field just
above the top plate

1) Surface S1: Ienc= I What’s Going On?

2) Surface S2: Ienc = 0
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 Displacement Current
We don’t have current between the capacitor
plates but we do have a changing E field. Can we
“make” a current out of that?

This is called the “displacement current”.

It is not a flow of charge but proportional to
changing electric flux
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 Displacement Current:

If surface S2
encloses all of the
electric flux due to
the charged plate
then Idis = I

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 Maxwell-Ampere’s Law

“flow of electric charge”

“changing electric flux”

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 Concept Question: Capacitor
If instead of integrating the magnetic field around the pictured
Amperian circular loop of radius r we were to integrate around an
Amperian loop of the same radius R as the plates (b) then the
integral of the magnetic field around the closed path would be

1. the same.
2. larger.
3. smaller.
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 Concept Q. Answer: Capacitor
Answer 2. The line integral of B is larger for larger r
As we increase the radius of our Amperian loop we
enclose more flux and hence the magnitude of the
integral will increase.

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Sign Conventions: Right Hand Rule

Integration direction clockwise for

line integral requires that unit
normal points into page for surface
integral.
Current positive into the page.
Negative out of page.
Electric flux positive into page,
negative out of page. 11
Sign Conventions: Right Hand Rule

Integration direction counter

clockwise for line integral requires
that unit normal points out page for
surface integral.
Current positive out of page.
Negative into page.
Electric flux positive out of page,
negative into page.
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 Concept Q. Answer: Capacitor
Answer 2. The line integral of B is positive.

There is no enclosed current through the disk. When

integrating in the direction shown, the electric flux is positive.
Because the plates are charging, the electric flux is increasing.
Therefore the line line integral is positive.

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 Concept Question: Capacitor

The figures above show a side and top view of a

capacitor with charge Q and electric and magnetic
fields E and B at time t. At this time the charge Q is:

1. Increasing in time
2. Constant in time.
3. Decreasing in time.
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 Concept Q. Answer: Capacitor
Answer 1. The charge Q is increasing in time

The B field is counterclockwise, which means that the

if we choose counterclockwise circulation direction,
the electric flux must be increasing in time. So positive
charge is increasing on the bottom plate.
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Maxwell’s Equations

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 Electromagnetism Review
E fields are associated with:
(1) electric charges (Gauss’s Law )
(2) time changing B fields (Faraday’s Law)

B fields are associated with

(3a) moving electric charges (Ampere-Maxwell Law)
(3b) time changing E fields (Maxwell’s Addition (Ampere-
Maxwell Law)

Conservation of magnetic flux

(4) No magnetic charge (Gauss’s Law for Magnetism)
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 Electromagnetism Review
Conservation of charge:

E and B fields exert forces on (moving) electric

charges:

Energy stored in electric and magnetic fields

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Maxwell’s Equations
in Vacua

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 Maxwell’s Equations

What about free space (no charge or current)?

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How Do Maxwell’s Equations
Lead to EM Waves?

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 Wave Equation
Start with Ampere-Maxwell Eq and closed oriented loop

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 Wave Equation
Start with Ampere-Maxwell Eq:

Apply it to red rectangle:

So in the limit that dx is very small:

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 Group Problem: Wave Equation
Use Faraday’s Law
and apply it to red rectangle to find the partial differential
equation in order to find a relationship between

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Group Problem: Wave Equation Sol.
Use Faraday’s Law:

and apply it to red rectangle:

So in the limit that dx is very small:

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1D Wave Equation for Electric Field

Take x-derivative of Eq.(1) and use the Eq. (2)

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 1D Wave Equation for E

This is an equation for a wave. Let

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Definition of Constants and Wave Speed
Recall exact definitions of

The permittivity of free space is exactly defined by

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Group Problem: 1D Wave Eq. for B

Take appropriate derivatives of the above equations

and show that

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 Wave Equations: Summary
Both electric & magnetic fields travel like waves:

with speed

But there are strict relations between them:

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Electromagnetic Waves

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Electromagnetic Radiation: Plane
Waves

http://youtu.be/3IvZF_LXzcc
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