TUTORIAL QUESTIONS FOR ELE 303

Question One
a) (i) What do you understand by the term electric dipole?
(ii) Describe an electric dipole moment.
b) An electric dipole having dipole moment 107 a z Cm 1 is situated at point (2,1, 3) . Find
the electric potential V and electric field intensity E at
(i) (2,1,13)
(ii) (1, 600 , 450 )
 x2  y 2 
 ,   tan 1   ,
y
[Note: r  x 2  y 2  z 2 ,   tan 1 
 z  x
 
z  r cos  , x  r sin  cos , y  r sin  sin  ]
c) (i) Define electric lines of force and state its three properties.
(ii) Define equipotential surface and state its relationship to electric lines of force.
(iii)State one practical application of the concept of field mapping (flux lines and
equipotential surfaces)
(iv) Obtain the equation of the flux lines in a region where E  y 2 x  2 xy y and find the
line that passes through point (2, 1,3)

Question One
a) (i) Highlight steps involve in the application of Coulumbs’s law for determination of the
electric field density.
b) (i) Given a uniformly charged sphere of radius a , derive expression for the electric flux
density everywhere if the sphere is having a volume charge density  v Cm 3 .
(ii) Determine the electric flux density D at 3m and 7.5m , given that the surface area of
the sphere is 100 m 2 and that v  2nC / m3 .

Question Three
a) (i) What do you understand by the term dielectric strength of a material?
(ii) What relationship exists between the dielectric strength and dielectric breakdown?
(iii) State four factors that influence dielectric breakdown of a material. (i) Given the
expression E  V , where E is the electric field intensity, V is the electric
potential and  is the del operator, give the physical interpretation of the expression.
b) (ii) A point charge of magnitude Q1  5nC is placed at the origin. If the potential at
point (0, 6, 8) is 2V, determine the electric potential at A(3, 2, 6) and B (1, 5, 7) .
c) (iii) the amount of the work required if charge Q1  5nC is to be moved from point
A(3, 2, 6) to point B (1, 5, 7) .

Question Four
a) State boundary conditions between two dielectrics when:
(i) no charge is present at the interface.
 (ii) a surface charge of density  s is present at the interface.
b) A region of space is made of composite material such that half-space x  0 is made of
perfect conductor while region x  0 is a dielectric material with  r  2.0 . Suppose a
surface charge of density 2nC / m 2 is placed on the conductor, determine the electric
field intensity and flux density at point:
(i) (3, 2, 2) .
(ii) ( 4,1, 5)
d) A region of an electric field is to be set up via placement four point charges Q1  1 C ,
Q2  2 C and Q3  3 C , one at a time and in that order at (0, 0, 0) , (1, 0, 0) and (0, 0, 1)
. Determine the quantity of energy expended in the placement of each of the charges.
Question Five
a) Highlight procedure of obtaining E and V via applications of Poisson’s and Laplace’s
equations. 3 marks
b) Capacitance of a two plate capacitor can be determined via treatment as a boundary-value
problem. If the capacitance is defined as C  Q /V
Highlight steps that can be taken to determine value of C .
c) A cylindrical capacitor has radii a  10mm and b  25mm . Determine the capacitance
per meter of the capacitor if the plates are filled with a material having:
(i)  r  2.5
(ii)  r  (10   ) / 

Question Six
a) (i) State three ways through which static magnetic field can be produced.
(ii) List six cases of application of magnetic phenomenon.
(iii) State Biot-Savart and Ampere circuital laws.
b) A straight filamentary conductor is carrying direct current of 2.5A. Determine the
magnetic field intensity at a distance 5m from the line if the line is:
(i) infinite in length
(ii) semi-infinite in length
c) State three ways through which magnetic force field force can be experienced.

Question Seven
a) Differentiate between each of the followings:
(i) conduction current and convection current
(ii) polar dielectric and non-polar dielectric
b) (i) What do you understand by the term dielectric strength of a material?
(ii) What relationship exists between the dielectric strength and dielectric breakdown?
(iii) State four factors that influence dielectric breakdown of a material.
c) A region of an electric field is to be set up via placement four point charges Q1  1 C ,
Q2  2 C , Q3  3 C and Q4  4 C , one at a time and in that order at (0, 0, 0) , (1, 0, 0) ,
(0, 0, 1) and (0, 0,1) . Determine the quantity of energy expended in the placement of
each of the charges.
Question Eight
a) (i) Explain the term boundary conditions with respect to electromagnetic field theory.
(ii) State boundary conditions between two dielectrics and between a dielectric and a
conductor.
b) A region of space is made of composite material such that half-space x  0 is made of
perfect conductor while region x  0 is a dielectric material with  r  2.0 . Suppose a surface
charge of density 2nC / m 2 is placed on the conductor, determine the electric field intensity and
flux density at point (3, 2, 2) .
c) A charge distribution in free space is such that the volume charge density  v is such that
 v  2r , 0  r  10m
v   nC / m 3 Find the electric field intensity E when
 0, elsewhere

(i) r  2m
(ii) r  12m
(iii) the associated potential in each case of (i) and (ii).

Question Ten
a) (i) State three ways through which static magnetic field can be produced.
(ii) List five cases of application of magnetic phenomenon.
(iii) State Biot-Savart and Ampere circuital laws.
b) A straight filamentary conductor is carrying direct current of 2.5A. Determine the
magnetic field intensity at a distance 5m from the line if the line is:
(i) infinite in length
(ii) semi-infinite in length
(iii) Suppose the conductor is folded into a square loop antenna, determine the magnetic
field at the centre of the loop.
c) Given two current elements, such that the first one is a square loop of side-length 2m
carrying current of 3A while the second current element is a square loop of side-length
3.5m and carries current of 4.5A. Suppose point A(1, 2,3) is on first current element and
point B (5, 2,3) is on the second one such that the line joining points A and B coincides
with the line of action of the force, determine the force between the two current elements.
Question Eleven
a) Starting from the point form of Ampere’s law, derive the Maxwell’s equation in terms of
the surface current density.
b) Explain each of the followings with respect to electromagnetic field theory:
(i) Homogeneous medium
(ii) Linear medium
(iii) Isotropic medium
(iv) Dispersive medium
(v) Boundary conditions.
c) Consider a boundary formed by two different dielectric materials with relative
permittivity  r1 and  r 2 , respectively. The field vector from medium 1 incident at the
 boundary with angle 1 and emerge at angle  2 in medium 2; angles are measured with
respect to the normal to the boundary. If D1 and D2 are respectively flux densities in
medium 1 and medium 2 while E1 and E2 are the respective electric field intensities.
Write out expressions for the boundary conditions if:
(i) a charge density  C / m 2 is located at the boundary
(ii) no charge is present at the boundary
(iii) if medium 1 is replaced with conducting block having charge density  C / m 2 at
its surface.
d) In free space region, the half space region x  0 has electric field intensity
E1  3i  5 j  3k V / m while the region x  0 is laced with a dielectric material with
 r  3.6 , determine the direction of the electric field vector with respect to the normal to
boundary in the dielectric medium.