Book Description

This book explores the fundamental but often overlooked connection between Maxwell's equations, as they are taught in undergraduate electrical engineering courses, and special relativity. Written for an audience of practicing engineers instead of theoretical physicists, it exposes the underlying contradictions brought about by the emergence of electromagnetic theory, one of the greatest triumphs in mathematical physics of all time that unified the phenomena of electricity, magnetism, and light, into a world in which the classical Galilean principle of relativity was thought incontrovertible. It explains how Einstein redefined the concepts of space and time and what it means to measure them, while altogether disbanding the notion of global simultaneity. A manifestly relativistic formulation of electromagnetic laws is first presented and then applied to common engineering problems, like the interaction of electromagnetic fields at dynamic interfaces, the derivation of propagating modes in closed metal waveguides, and the foundations of microwave network theory. Mathematical toolkits for relativistic analysis, such as tensor notation and spacetime algebra, are explained. These tools are then used to analyze the consequences of motion at relativistic speeds upon otherwise well-known electromagnetic circuit behaviors. Well-drawn and insightful diagrams along with articulate explanations help the reader to gain an intuitive understanding of four-dimensional spacetime and the nature of the electromagnetic field in that context, while summary tables and comprehensive appendices serve as a resource for further self-directed exploration. Readers trained in microwave engineering will learn to see their field from a new perspective, and shall gain from that new insight the ability to conceive of unexpected solutions to practical engineering problems that might otherwise defy one's intuition.