Momentum density vector of a plane em wave

aftershock
Messages
106
Reaction score
0

Homework Statement



Show that in vacuum the magnitude of the momentum density
vector of a plane electromagnetic wave is equal to the energy density
divided by the speed of light, c.

Homework Equations



\vec{S} = \vec{E}x\vec{H}

The Attempt at a Solution



This doesn't seem too hard if you know what a momentum density vector is, so if this should be in the introductory section I apologize but it is a homework question from an upper division course.

The only thing I'm really looking for is how to find/ what is a momentum density vector. I have no idea how to go about finding it.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Do you know how the 16 components of the energy-momentum tensor look like ?
 
To solve this, I first used the units to work out that a= m* a/m, i.e. t=z/λ. This would allow you to determine the time duration within an interval section by section and then add this to the previous ones to obtain the age of the respective layer. However, this would require a constant thickness per year for each interval. However, since this is most likely not the case, my next consideration was that the age must be the integral of a 1/λ(z) function, which I cannot model.
Back
Top