NAME:

RECITATION SECTION:

ECEN 3400

ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS AND WAVES

5/4/04

Final Exam
Up to two 8-1/2 11 sheets of notes and a calculator allowed.
Neither text nor course notes may be consulted.
Show (i. e., explain) all work. Turn in only solutions to 7 problems. I will not grade more
than that.
Answer any five (5) of the following problems.
1. (10 points) A long wire carries a DC current I0 along the z-axis.

loop
motion

l
I0

r=b+c cos t
r=a+c cos t

A small rectangular loop of wire of length l is located next to the first wire as shown, oscillating between
positions r = a + c and r = b + c and r = a c and r = b c. Its motion is described by the positions
of its sides r = a + c cos t to r = b + c cos t, . The long wire is assumed to be located at r = 0. If a
small gap is made in the wire loop, obtain an expression for the induced emf e(t) present in the loop.
Indicate the reference direction of this emf in a figure.
2. (10 points) A DC current I flows longitudinally along a composite resistor, consisting of two sequential
cylinders of radius a and length l whose conductivities are 1 and 2 , surrounded by a coaxial region
of conductivity 3 , length 2l and outer radius 2a as shown. Electrodes are located at both ends of the
resistor, and a potential difference V is imposed between them.
l

l
a

2a

Obtain expressions for the electric field E and current density J within each of the three regions, and
find an expression for the overall resistance of this structure.
1

3. (10 points) A semiconducting material has a conductivity = 0.1 S/m, permeability 0 and a relative
permittivity r = 3. At what frequency will a plane wave in this material attenuate by 6 dB after
propagating a distance of 20 cm? Is this material a good conductor at this frequency?
4. (10 points) A transmission line whose characteristic impedance is Z0 is interrupted at z = 0 by a series
capacitor C, after which it continues on indefinitely.

Z0

Z0

A voltage wave given by the unit step function v+ (t) = u(t) = 1 for t > 0 and = 0 for t < 0 is incident
from the left side of the capacitor (z < 0). Obtain an expression for the reflected voltage wave v (0 , t)
just to the left of the capacitor.
5. (10 points) A layer of lossless nonmagnetic ( = 0 ) dielectric material with = 90 , whose thickness
is d, is surrounded by air on both sides. Find the smallest nonzero thickness d such that the reflection
coefficient of a normally incident plane wave from the air region is zero when the frequency of the plane
wave is f = 500 MHz.
6. (10 points) Until recently, most of the Denver television stations currently broadcast a low-power
HDTV (digital) version of their signals from antennas located in downtown Denver. Consider a station
broadcasting at a frequency of 300 MHz. Assume that the directivity of its transmitting antenna is 5
dB, and that you want to receive their signal in Boulder, a distance of 40 km from the transmitting
antenna. If you buy an antenna with a maximum directivity of 12 dB, and a minimum received signal
power of P2 = 1 W is required to see the signal without noise, what is the minimum transmitter power
P1 that the station must feed to the transmitting antenna? [Note: Although the following information
is not needed for this problem, it may interest you to know that most stations are currently broadcasting
at power levels P1 of about 1 MW.]
Answer any two (2) of the following problems. Little or no mathematics is needed for
them. Give reasons for your answers.
7. (10 points) A uniformly charged sphere spins on its axis. A second small charged particle orbits the
sphere with the same angular velocity (like a planet around the sun) at a radius r. Is the force between
the sphere and the second particle (a) less than, (b) the same as, or (c) larger than the force that
would exist if the sphere and the second charge were stationary (not moving)?
8. (10 points) When a normally incident plane wave is reflected from the plane interface between two
dielectrics, is the Poynting vector continuous at the interface or not? What is the physical meaning of
your answer?
9. (10 points) Give two possible reasons that digital signals traveling along conducting strips on a printedcircuit board may be subject to bit errors (i. e., to false logic gate triggers).