This simulator aims a TE-polarized electromagnetic wave at a planar boundary — either a lossless dielectric half-space or a perfect electric conductor. Watch the incident, reflected and transmitted wave paths, the sign reversal a conductor imposes on the reflected field, refraction into the dielectric, and how the measurements account for energy on both sides of the interface.
• A real-time 3D scene of an RF launcher (horn, waveguide flange, coax feed), a planar reflecting boundary at x = 0, incident/reflected/transmitted electric-field vectors and traveling graphs, and a boundary probe comparing Ei + Er against Et, with home view, focus-selected-part, auto-rotate, expand and show/hide instrument-cover controls. • Eight experiment controls: boundary material (lossless dielectric or perfect electric conductor), dielectric relative permittivity (1–16), incidence angle from normal (0–75°), frequency (100–600 MHz), incident electric-field peak (10–100 V/m), signal (continuous sinusoid or single Gaussian RF pulse), and show/hide toggles for incident, reflected and transmitted fields. • Live metrics: signed field reflection coefficient, field transmission coefficient, reflectance and transmittance as power fractions, refraction angle, incident and transmitted wavelength, incident/reflected/transmitted normal average flux, and instantaneous interface field. • Playback controls: restart animation and send pulse, plus standard pause/resume and speed controls. • A Curves & measurements tab with two live charts (boundary fields/energy balance and an incidence-angle sweep), the full TE reflection/transmission equations, and snapshot measurement readouts. • An Experiments tab with four guided fixtures (normal-incidence dielectric, perfect conducting wall, remove the boundary contrast, follow a pulse through the boundary) and a Model verification bench, plus a timestamped event log and a copyable trial report. • A Learn & assess tab with four guided lessons, a knowledge-check quiz with reset, and a written model-scope statement with a technical-background reference link.
The field reflection coefficient Γ is signed. At a perfect conductor, Γ = −1, so the reflected electric field exactly cancels the incident tangential field at the surface — that is a phase reversal, not negative reflected power. Reflected power is proportional to the coefficient squared, so a perfect conductor still reflects 100% of incident power. Angles throughout are measured from the surface normal, the reflected angle always equals the incident angle, and for a nonmagnetic dielectric, Snell's law gives sinθt = sinθi/√εr.
Transmitted normal power flux depends on the new medium's impedance and the refracted ray angle, not simply the transmission coefficient squared — for this lossless model, reflectance plus transmittance always equals 1. A Gaussian pulse launched at the source exposes the physical sequence: it peaks at the boundary after a calculable travel time, then reflected and transmitted peaks depart toward their respective destinations at their own propagation speeds.
This model covers an infinite planar boundary with free-space incidence onto a linear lossless nonmagnetic dielectric or a perfect electric conductor, TE polarization only. It excludes absorption, finite slabs, surface roughness, diffraction, antenna near-field effects and total internal reflection. One playback second represents 1 ns, and runs stop at 240 ns.
It means a full-amplitude, phase-reversed reflected field — not negative reflected power. Power reflectance is |Γ|² = 1, so a perfect conductor reflects all incident power while flipping the field's phase at the boundary.
They always sum to 1. Normal power flux is conserved across the boundary in this model, since there is no absorption — whatever power is not reflected is transmitted.
No, it marks a half-space boundary only. Back-surface echoes and finite-aperture diffraction that a real finite-thickness slab would produce are excluded from this model.
The field reflection coefficient is −1/3 and the transmission coefficient is 2/3, giving 11.11% reflected power and 88.89% transmitted power, with the transmitted wavelength halved compared to free space.