EO208 Electromagnetics (1)

Homework 2

1. (a) What is the “physical meaning” of the gradient of a scalar function V?

(b) What is the formula for V in spherical coordinates?

(c) How is the directional derivative dV/dl along a certain direction ( dl ) related to V ?
Given a scalar function

determine
(d) the magnitude and the direction of the maximum rate of increase of V at the point P(1, 1, 1),
(e) the rate of increase of V at P in the direction of the origin.

2. (a) Find the divergence of the following radial vector fields: F = aRRn.
(b) From (a), what is this divergence when n = -2?
(c)What is the geometrical definition of ‧F?
(d) Use this geometrical definition to evaluate ‧F at the origin (R = 0) when n = -2. Why is
this result inconsistent with Part (b)?
3. Cheng, P.2-29.

4. F ( x, y, z )  ( x  9 y  3 z )aˆ x  (3x y  2 yz)aˆ y  (2  z  z )aˆ z
3 2 2 2


(a) Calculate the net outward flux of F through the spherical surface x 2  y 2  z 2  9 .

(b) What is the outward flux of F through the upper-hemispherical surface?

(c) What is the outward flux of F through the lower-hemispherical surface?

A vector field F  aˆ x e  aˆ y ( xe  2 z )  aˆ z (2 y ) .
y y
5.
(1,1,1)  
(a) Evaluate the line integral (0,0,0)
F  dl by choosing the following path:

(0,0,0)(1,0,0)(1,1,0)(1,1,1).
(1,1,1)  
(b) Use Stokes’s theorem to prove that 
(0,0,0)
F  dl is path-independent.

(c) Show that F can be expressed as the gradient of a scalar function Φ(x, y, z).
(d) Find this Φ(x, y, z).
6. Verify the null identities:
‧(×A)≡0
by expansion in general orthogonal curvilinear coordinates (u1, u2, u3).