1.10: Summary

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This introductory chapter provided the background for the following chapters on distributed effects. A review of Maxwell’s equations and their implications was presented. The notable change in the way these were presented here to the first time they are introduced in electromagnetics courses is the first time the static electric and magnetic field laws are presented and then Maxwell’s equations are covered almost as though there was a continuous derivation. However Maxwell’s equations cannot be derived from the static laws even with some additional insight. Instead Maxwell’s equations embed the quantum field theory that there are two inseparable component fields which we call electric and magnetic fields, and the fundamental relativity effect of the finite speed of light which results from relating the spatial derivative of each of the field components to the time derivative of the other component. The insight places Maxwell among the ten greatest physicists of all time.

The finite speed for electromagnetic radiation is at the core of microwave engineering. At microwave frequencies the finite speed at which information can move means that microwave circuit design is quite different from low frequency circuit design, and the distributed and electromagnetic coupling effects lead to a large number of microwave circuit components that provide a very rich design space.