Electromagnetic Momentum and Energy

[quantoshake11]

I've been presented with these concepts, and the first time i saw them i thought they were just mathematical mambo-jumbo, but of course i didn't gave much importance to these thoughts. I've been constructing an idea of these after seeing how they behave in different circumstances, but really, i just seem to make a sense out of them from the examples and not from the 'derivation' they gave me. they're quite strange concepts, and i just wanted you guys to throw me some facts about them to chew in a bit and give a sense of them :)

 

[Bob S]

Are you talking about radio waves, visible light, x-rays, photons, etc?

 

[quantoshake11]

well, as far as i know, any EM field will have an energy associated with it. the expression for it would be
(1/2)*\int E^2+B^2
This would be valid for any EM field, including light. the integral is taken over a certain volume, and you can get the energy density as the limit.

 

[Bob S]

The equation you are writing relates to the stored energy density in a volume. It is the physics version of such electrical engineering equations as (1/2) L I² and (1/2) C V². The electromagnetic energy flow is given by the Poynting vector P = integral[E x H] dA, which relates to the electromagnetic power flowing across an area element dA.

 

[jtbell]

These pages derive electromagnetic energy and momentum conservation from Maxwell's equations.

 

[quantoshake11]

thanks. those links really helped :)