Electromagnetic Concepts Research Articles

Enhancing Physical Science Education: The Integration of Digital Practical Work in Teaching Electrodynamics for Experiential Learning

Digital practical work (DPW) has emerged as a highly effective and indispensable component of science education, enhancing and extending traditional laboratory experiences. DPW aims to complement physical laboratory experiments, particularly those that teachers may find challenging to conduct or lack the confidence to perform. In this study, a content training workshop on electrodynamics was implemented to showcase DPW's effectiveness. The workshop was designed to equip in-service physical science teachers with the skills needed for integrating digital tools into their teaching methods. To gather comprehensive data, the study utilized video recordings, discussions, and evaluation reports, providing rich qualitative evidence of DPW's effectiveness. These methods captured teachers' understanding of electromagnetic concepts, their experiences, and their perceptions of DPW. The findings revealed that DPW significantly enhanced teachers' knowledge of electrodynamics and their awareness of effective digital pedagogy. The study strongly recommends integrating DPW into physical science teaching, particularly when traditional laboratory work is impractical. Unlike conventional teaching that merely transmits information, physical science education requires hands-on, practical observation to support theoretical concepts and promote meaningful learning. DPW bridges this gap, ensuring that students receive a robust and engaging science education, regardless of the constraints of the physical laboratory environment.

The teaching electromagnetism using digital technologies

The Physics of Electromagnetism began in ancient Greece and after centuries the studies of Electricity and Magnetism became unified. Although Electromagnetism is present in the curricular components of Brazilian education and in the daily lives of students, the difficulties that students have in assimilating the basic concepts related to this topic are notable. In this context, a didactic and practical mini-course was proposed where Digital Information and Communication Technologies (DICT) were used, conveniently to teach students some concepts of Electromagnetism. During the activity, two questionnaires were administered, one before the mini-course and the other after it. The first composed of seven questions (objective and discursive) aimed to obtain students' prior knowledge in relation to Electromagnetism. The second questionnaire consisted of four questions, three of which were paired with questions from the first questionnaire. It was applied with the aim of evaluating whether the mini-course carried out favored student learning, thus revealing possible signs of significant learning. The post-questionnaire also presented a discursive question that asked students' opinions about the mini-course developed based on DICT. This research can be characterized as qualitative and quantitative and from the data analysis, it was noticed that the activities developed with high school students favored their learning as observed in the best results revealed in the post-questionnaire. It is concluded that the use of DICT should be encouraged in schools, as they constitute tools that alleviate difficulties and help students learn.

A Computational and Experimental Performance Analysis of an Electromagnetic Voltage Regulator Proposal throughout Controlled Series Voltage Injection

Power quality problems related to short or long time voltage variation have motived the search for voltage compensator techniques capable to provide dynamic voltage regulation to accomplish voltage supply levels in accordance with electrical energy agencies acceptable levels. Although one could recognize that a variety of products already offered in the market are capable of attending general electrical power system requirements the available technology comprises quite simple devices till very sophisticate ones. Having in mind the combination of simplicity, competitive cost, low maintenance need and an attractive performance at recovering the voltage deviations, then an electromagnetic concept to restore the desirable voltage within the established voltage levels is here proposed. The control strategy to be used can provide properties that enable this new device at proving the time response in accordance with the needs for long term and short term voltage variations. Concerning the proposed compensator physical topology it consists in extracting the necessary electrical power throughout a shunt transformer and the injection via a series unit. Besides the arrangement, the paper goes further by establishing a computational time domain model and a laboratory experiment to highlight the overall structure effectiveness at compensating voltage changes.

Computer-aided design of quadra-ridged waveguide transformers for full-band matching of half-height rectangular waveguides

A quadra-ridged waveguide transformer (QRWT) is proposed for full-band matching between a standard waveguide and a half-height waveguide, which meets the need for compact waveguide components and the need for multiple sections of irregular transmission lines for better matching in wider operation bands. Unlike conventional matching circuits with monotonically changing impedances, QRWTs form abrupt cross-section changes between transmission line steps. The initial configuration of QRWT is built by CST MICROWAVE STUDIO, a system-level electromagnetic compatibility and general high frequency passive device simulation software, according to the basic electromagnetic (EM) concept and then is optimized by optimization functions from an advanced EM simulator, during the optimization, releasing restrictions as many as possible. To explain the concept, a sample QRWT is designed to match a standard rectangular waveguide WR34 to a half-height waveguide. The reflection coefficient is less than −24 dB in the full operation bandwidth, from 21.7 to 33 GHz. The optimized QRWT has a length of 3.088 mm, 0.218 times the waveguide wavelength at its center operation frequency of 27.35 GHz. For comparison, a two-stage quarter-wave transformer matching circuit is optimized. For similar reflection coefficients in the same bandwidth, the QRWT has a length 57% shorter than the conventional one, and it has an easier manufacturing method using wire-electrode cutting. To verify the design, a back-to-back matching circuit was fabricated using brass material without extra dielectric material. Its measured reflections are less than −16.6 dB, and the insertion loss is less than 0.2 dB.

The Proton and Occam’s Razor

Otto Stern’s 1933 measurement of the unexpectedly large proton magnetic moment indicated to most physicists that the proton is not a point particle. At that time, many physicists modeled elementary particles as point particles, and therefore Stern’s discovery initiated the speculation that the proton might be a composite particle. In this work, we show that despite being an elementary particle, the proton is an extended particle. Our work is motivated by the experimental data, which we review in section 1.By applying Occam’s Razor principle, we identify a simple proton structure that explains the origin of its principal parameters. Our model uses only relativistic and electromagnetic concepts, highlighting the primary role of the electromagnetic potentials and of the magnetic flux quantum Φ M = h/e. Unlike prior proton models, our methodology does not violate Maxwell’s equation, Noether’s theorem, or the Pauli exclusion principle.Considering that the proton has an anapole (toroidal) magnetic moment, we propose that the proton is a spherical shaped charge that moves at the speed of light along a path that encloses a toroidal volume. A magnetic flux quantum Φ M = h/e stabilizes the proton’s charge trajectory. The two curvatures of the toroidal and poloidal current loops are determined by the magnetic forces associated with Φ M . We compare our calculations against experimental data.

Theory of electric, magnetic, and toroidal polarizations in crystalline solids with applications to hexagonal lonsdaleite and cubic diamond

Multipolar order in bulk crystalline solids is characterized by multipole densities -- denoted as polarizations in this work -- that cannot be cleanly defined using the concepts of classical electromagnetism. Here we use group theory to overcome this difficulty and present a systematic study of electric, magnetic and toroidal multipolar order in crystalline solids. Based on our symmetry analysis, we identify five categories of polarized matter, each of which is characterized by distinct features in the electronic band structure. For example, Rashba spin splitting in electropolar bulk materials like wurtzite represents the electric dipolarization in these materials. We also develop a general formalism of indicators for individual multipole densities that provide a physical interpretation and quantification of multipolar order. Our work clarifies the relation between patterns of localized multipoles and macroscopic multipole densities they give rise to. To illustrate the general theory, we discuss its application to polarized variants of hexagonal lonsdaleite and cubic diamond structures. Our work provides a general framework for classifying and expanding current understanding of multipolar order in complex materials.

A Graded Index All-Dielectric Lens for Field Decorrelation and Decoupling of a Wideband MIMO Antenna

In this paper a broadband graded index all-dielectric (GID) lens that enables field decorrelation and decoupling of closely spaced wideband multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna elements, is presented. Reduction in correlation coefficient ρ for field decorrelation and port decoupling is realized by tilting the individual antenna element radiation patterns away from each other and by suppressing the surface wave propagation inside the antenna substrate through judicious control of the permittivity profile of the GID lens using the concept of transformation electromagnetics (TE). The permittivity profile of the GID lens is designed using air-hole technology and is fabricated by additive manufacturing. To validate the proposed concept, six different examples of lens loaded wideband patch-based MIMO antenna elements arranged in two different orientations are investigated. Simulated and measured results verify the effectiveness of the proposed technique, which constitutes the reduction in ρ for both isotropic and non-isotropic propagation environments along with port-isolation enhancement without reducing the fractional bandwidth (FBW) in all of the six tested cases. Further results indicate a wide FBW having a minimum of 8.5% and a maximum of 33%, while radiation patterns with no extra backward radiation are obtained.

Interactive-Invention Instructional Strategy and Secondary School Students’ Achievement in Selected Electromagnetic Concepts in Ibadan North Local Government Area (LGA), Nigeria

Physics translates scientific discoveries to technology but students’ achievement in the subject has been observed to be below expectation at all levels of education in Nigeria. Electromagnetism aspect of physics is one of the areas in physics that has been reported to be very wide in coverage and abstract in nature, but students have difficulty understanding it. This paper focuses on determining the effect of interactive-invention instructional strategy on secondary school students’ achievement in electromagnetic concepts in Ibadan North LGA of Nigeria. Mixed methods research design was adopted for the study. Three senior secondary schools were randomly selected from Ibadan North LGA and also randomly assigned to the two treatment groups and control group. Intact classes from the selected schools were used and a total of 125 students participated in the study. The two treatment groups were taught using the interactive-invention instructional strategy with the electric motor/generator learning kits. Treatment group I participants worked individually while Treatment group II worked in groups of five. The control group were taught using the conventional lecture method. Physics Achievement Worksheets (PAW), Physics Students’ Attitude Questionnaire (PSAQ), and in-class discussion guide were the instruments used. The result of the study indicates a significant main effect of treatment on students’ academic achievement in the Experimental groups (F (2, 124) = 88.00; p<0.05, partial η2 = 0.61) and a significant main effect of students’ attitude on their academic achievement in the treatment groups (F(1, 124) = 5.80; p<0.05, partial η2 = 0.49). It was recommended that physics teachers should adopt interactive-invention instructional strategy in teaching electromagnetism concepts.

Numerical Simulation of a Hollow-Core Woodpile-Based Mode Launcher for Dielectric Laser Accelerators

Hollow core microstructures powered by infrared lasers represent a new and promising area of accelerator research, where advanced concepts of electromagnetism must be used to satisfy multiple requirements. Here, we present the design of a dielectric electromagnetic band gap (EBG) mode launcher–converter for high-power coupling in dielectric laser accelerators (DLAs). The device is based on a silicon woodpile structure, and it is composed of two perpendicularly coupled hollow-core waveguides—a transverse electric (TE)-like mode waveguide (excited from laser power) and a transverse magnetic (TM)-like mode (accelerating) waveguide—in analogy with the TE10-to-TM01 waveguide mode converters of radio frequency (RF) linear accelerators (LINACs). The structure is numerically designed and optimized, showing insertion losses (IL) <0.5 dB and efficient mode conversion in the operating bandwidth. The operating wavelength is 5 μm, corresponding to a frequency of ≈60 THz, in a spectral region where solid-state continuous-wave (CW) lasers exist and are actively developed. The presented woodpile coupler shows an interaction impedance in the order of 10 kΩ, high power handling and efficiency.

A Unified View of Computational Electromagnetics

This article presents a unified description of numerical methods for solving electromagnetic field problems. Traditionally, these methods are considered to be independent and alternative ways of solving Maxwell’s equations or equations derived therefrom. However, they all are projective approximations of the unknown solution by known expansion or basis functions with unknown amplitude coefficients that are determined using the so- called method of weighted residuals (MWR). This common feature forms the proposed unifying framework that may serve both as a systematic introduction to computational electromagnetics and as a way to provide insight into the nature, strengths, and limitations of the various algorithms used by present and future field solvers. For convenience, the fundamental equations and concepts of electromagnetics are summarized in order to facilitate the demonstration of the unified approach. Our aim is to provide students, designers, and researchers with a framework for developing new numerical algorithms, to guide users in the selection and application of electromagnetic design tools, and to foster informed engineering judgment. This article also serves as a review and summary of earlier theoretical works reported in different places and at different times.

Teaching electromagnetism using interactive-invention instructional strategy and the learning outcome of secondary school students

Electromagnetism is an important aspect of physics in Nigerian secondary school curriculum and has been identified as one of the difficult topics to learn by the students. There seem to be very little research on how to make the learning of electromagnetism easy and enjoyable. Therefore, this study determined the effect of teaching electromagnetism using interactive-invention instructional strategy on senior secondary II (SSII) physics students learning outcome. Pretest posttest control group quasi-experimental research design was employed with 125 SSII students from three randomly selected schools. Intact classes were used and two experimental groups were taught using interactive-invention instructional strategy: group I students worked individually and group II students worked in groups of five and control group was taught conventionally. Two research instruments were used to gather data for the study, namely physics achievement worksheets and in-class interview guide. Students in the experimental groups demonstrated better understanding of the concepts more than those in the control group. In-class interview was carried out at the end of the treatment and all the students in the experimental groups reported that they enjoyed learning the concepts because they had opportunity for hands-on activities and they will prefer that electromagnetic concepts be taught using instructional materials they could manipulate to observe what happens by themselves. It was recommended that teachers use this strategy where hands-on activity-based was emphasized to enhance easy learning of electromagnetism.

Five-Level Conception Diagnostic Test on Electromagnetic Induction Concepts: Feasibility Test and Overview of Students' Concept Understanding Level

During the Physics learning process, students often have difficulty in understanding the concepts, such as Electromagnetic Induction concepts. For example, students assumed that a loop in a magnetic field B whose coil plane area shrinks towards the page produces a constant induced electromotive force. However, the truth is when the surface area of the loop is reduced, the induced electromotive force produced gets smaller. This contradiction is called a misconception. This misconception should be detected immediately using a diagnostic test of conception, especially the five-level diagnostic test. This paper is intended to report the results of the writing of a five-level conception diagnostic test for Electromagnetic Induction concepts, to test its’ feasibility (validity and reliability) and to get an overview of the several students’ understanding level as well as to identify the most dominant internal factors that cause students' misconceptions on the concepts. A total of 11 questions on the diagnostic test is validated and reliable therefore it can be used to test students' understanding level. The results of the internal validity test are 92% (very valid) and the external content validity in terms of true fake and wrong fake values are 3.94% and 5.45%, the construct external validity (rxy=0.591) > rtable=0.3061 and the reliability [ r11=0.608 (very reliable)]. Among 14 students who were tested for their level of understanding 44.16% of them experienced a lack of knowledge.

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) in the Sub-6 GHz Band: Design, Implementation, and Real-World Demonstration

Here, we first aim to explain practical considerations to design and implement a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) in the sub-6 GHz band and then, to demonstrate its real-world performance. The wave manipulation procedure is explored with a discussion on relevant electromagnetic (EM) concepts and backgrounds. Based on that, the RIS is designed and fabricated to operate at the center frequency of 3.5 GHz. The surface is composed of 2430 unit cells where the engineered reflecting response is obtained by governing the microscopic characteristics of the conductive patches printed on each unit cell. To achieve this goal, the patches are not only geometrically customized to properly reflect the local waves, but also are equipped with specific varactor diodes to be able to reconfigure their response when it is required. An equivalent circuit model is presented to analytically evaluate the unit cell’s performance with a method to measure the unit cell’s characteristics from the macroscopic response of the RIS. The patches are printed on six standard-size substrates which then placed together to make a relatively big aperture with approximate planar dimensions of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$120 \times 120$ </tex-math></inline-formula> cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . The manufactured RIS possesses a control unit with a custom-built system that can control the response of the reflecting surface by regulating the performance of the varactor diode on each printed patch across the structure. Furthermore, with an introduction of our test-bed system, the functionality of the developed RIS in an indoor real-world scenario is assessed. Finally, we showcase the capability of the RIS in hand to reconfigure itself in order to anomalously reflect the incoming EM waves toward the direction of interest in which a receiver could be experiencing poor coverage.

A Study of the Understanding of Key Concepts of Electromagnetism of 11th Grade Greek High School Students

This study is set in the context of teaching and learning about electromagnetism in Greek high schools. Drawing from constructivism theory, the study aspires to explore students’ understandings of key concepts on both electric and magnetic field as well as electromagnetic induction. For this purpose, an experimental investigation was conducted with 80 11nth grade high school students. Empirical data was collected through a questionnaire which was developed on the basis of test subjects used on past exams in Greek high schools in electromagnetism area. Research findings suggest that students face difficulties in dealing with qualitative tasks in electric and magnetic field. In addition, they seem to confront severe difficulties in conceptualizing the notion of induction of emf.

The Electric Monochord: A Musical Demonstration About Electromagnetic Induction

In this work, an easy-to-set-up demonstration about electromagnetic induction is presented, where a simple toy electric motor is transformed into a musical instrument. With this creative way to mix physics and music, it is expected to engage and motivate students to learn about the basic concepts of electromagnetism.

Towards a historical approach to physics education

Modern physics is a complex multiplicity of practices: theoretical, mathematical, experimental and simulation practices. Experimental and simulation practices are related to the pragmatic dimension of a physical theory. Mathematical practices are related to the syntactic dimension of a physical theory, but theoretical practices involve an often neglected semantic dimension. Physics and consequently teaching physics are usually reduced to the syntactic and pragmatic dimensions. Semantic dimension is linked to the conceptualization of the physical reality, to the conception of Nature. By neglecting the semantic dimension, physics is reduced to a pure mathematical game and to technological manipulations. Thus, the cultural aspect of science is lost and physics education is reduced to a mere technical training. This process of de-culturalization of science had its roots in the Enlightenment’s turn in physics to free it from theology and metaphysics and had its completion in the post-second-world-war era. I believe we have to recover the cultural aspects of physics to understand it more deeply in its whole complexity. We have to recover all its relationships with other disciplines as philosophy, mathematics, psychology, sociology and other sciences, even theology, which are fundamental to constitute its semantic dimension. Historical approach to physics and physics education is the only way to recover this interdisciplinarity at the roots of the various physical conceptions of Nature. In this way, for example, we can understand that beyond mechanics there is a mechanist conception of Nature, beyond thermodynamics there is a thermodynamical conception of Nature, and beyond electromagnetism there is an electromagnetic conception of Nature. These different conceptions of Nature are not compatible and their historical fight has produced the relativistic, quantum and chaos revolutions in XX century physics. These different conceptions of Nature imply different existential self-understanding of the meaning of mankind in the universe and different ethical perspectives.

Ejection angle and depth of photoelectrons based on the electromagnetic wave concept

Photoelectron ejection is important in technological applications. Recently, the photoelectric effect was explained based on the electromagnetic (EM) wave concept. According to the EM wave concept, an electron within the conduction band of a photocell moves circularly. In this paper, we explain few facts regarding the photoelectric emission process, such as the radius of circular motion, maximum ejection angle, and depth of the photoelectron, based on the EM wave concept. Further, the effects of the intensity and frequency on these parameters are discussed. The ejection angle depends on the frequency and intensity of the light and the depth of the photoelectrons. The explanations herein may increase the applications of light energy.

“Particle of God” as insulting of the Divine Principle

The author’s research has shown that fundamental magnetic poles (magnetic charges) are real structural components of atoms and substance. It is the magnetic poles, and not the moving electric charges are the direct sources of all magnetic fields and magnetic manifestations in Nature. The main reasons that real magnetic charges were “buried alive” in modern theories are the physics of its confinement in substance which is radically different from the confinement of electrons, as well as the vicious electromagnetic theory (electric magnetism) of Maxwell (1873). The vicious ignoring of real magnetic charges, as well as true anti-electrons in physical science for almost 150 years is responsible for the appearance of such global theoretical delusions as the curvature of 4-dimensional space-time, explaining the nature of gravity, the global expansion of the Universe and the big bang. Annihilation of particles in the pairs particle - antiparticle and many, many others. The author’s experiments have shown that the gravitational field is the vortex electromagnetic field, and all varieties of Physical Mass (FM) are of the electromagnetic atom-figurative structures, which are capable of emitting gravitational field. The masses are, for example, atoms and nucleons. If magnetic charges are removed from the FM composition, then only electric particles will remain in this “place” which themselves, without the participation of magnetic poles, are not able to form either mass or gravitational field. All fundamental electric and magnetic particles are not and cannot become masses, and even “God particles” cannot change anything here. The notion the famous Higgs boson and its main purpose - to give mass to particles is of just a vicious theoretical fiction and a sad result of following erroneous electromagnetic concept of Maxwell. In addition, there is no division of Masses into gravitational and inert ones. The concepts of gravitational and inert mass refer to the same electromagnetic structure, called Mass, but they correspond to different processes of interaction of its gravitational field with other masses (so-called gravitational mass) and the environment (so-called inert mass). As for spinor particles, that is, charged particles, they have the property of inertia, however, this circumstance cannot bind these particles with of a real mass.

Electromagnetism from 5D gravity: beyond the Maxwell equations

Ever with the work of Kaluza, it has been known that 4D Einstein- and Maxwell-type equations emerge from the equations for 5D gravity, in Ricci-flat space-times having a space-like Killing vector. We revisit these equations and compare them with the Maxwell equations and the Ohm’s law. Although 5D gravity and traditional electromagnetic theory are mathematically related, a paradigm shift in traditional electromagnetic concepts is required for unification. First, both the Maxwell equations and the Ohm’s law are found among the field equations for 5D gravity, which turns Ohm’s law into a field equation. Second, the concept of 4-current density, bringing together electrical charge and current density, is no longer fundamental for the electromagnetic theory resulting from 5D gravity. Third, the 5D gravity equations suggest a generalization for the model of the perfect conductor, to describe a broader range of electromagnetic phenomena and bypass the concept of 4-current density. We thus propose an amendment to the Maxwell equations, based on the field equations for 5D gravity, and discuss a few applications. Namely, we discuss the propagation of electromagnetic waves through an imperfect conductor and topics in electrostatics and magnetostatics, touching ground with the Hall effect and the phenomenon of the persistent current.

Development of a do-it-yourself physics equipment in electromagnetism: brushless generator

The main objective of this study was to develop a DIY Physics equipment, brushless generator, to be used in demonstrating the concepts of electromagnetism. This study employed quantitative and qualitative methods in analyzing and interpreting data. The equipment and its illustrative paper were designed by the researchers. Rating sheets were used to assess the workability of the equipment and illustrative paper. Enhancements were made by the researchers to improve the workability of the equipment as well as the illustrative paper. The pre-service and in-service Physics teachers assessed the DIY Physics equipment as workable. The illustrative paper was appropriate to the in-service Physics teachers and DIY Physics equipment.