Matlab Interactive Examples for the Part 1A Electromagnetics Course

Introduction

This page is devoted to worked examples which illustrate the fundamental principles in the 1A Electromagnetics course. The problems have been selected directly from either the course notes or the associated Examples Papers. Every problem shown here has been solved for numerically, given certain inputs, by writing small pieces of Matlab® code.

Matlab® comes from 'Matrix Laboratory'..[it] can be used as a very powerful calculator for all kinds of engineering, scientific, and other calculations. It is not necessary to know much about matrices to use Matlab, though the more you know, the more effectively you can use it.

These examples not only demostrate elements of the 1A Electromagnetics course, but also provide an incentive to use Matlab as the effective and easy to use tool that it really is. A glance at the code for each example should reveal just that..

Electrostatics

An air-filled coaxial cable.: To calculate the electric field, potential, and capacitance per unit length.
Two adjacent straight conductors.: To calculate the electric field, potential, and capacitance per unit length.
A parallel plate capacitor with two dielectrics.: To calculate the electric field, potential, and capacitance.
A coaxial cable with two dielectrics.: To calculate the electric field, potential, and capacitance.
A parallel plate capacitor with dielectric.: To calculate the electrostatic force exerted on the dielectric.

Magnetic Fields and Forces

A long thin solenoid.: To calculate the B-field and flux.
A coaxial cable.: To calculate the self-inductance.
Parallel conducting loops.: To calculate the mutual inductance.

Magnetic Materials

A non-linear electromagnet.: To calculate the B-field.
A permanent magnet.: To calculate the B-field and flux.
An electromagnet attached to a soft-iron pole piece.: To calculate the force between an electromagnet and a soft iron pole piece.
A permanent magnet attached to soft-iron pole piece.: To calculate the force between a permanent magnet and a soft iron pole piece.