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In physics, the Poynting vector (or Umov–Poynting vector) represents the directional energy flux (the energy transfer per unit area, per unit time) or power flow of an electromagnetic field. The SI unit of the Poynting vector is the watt per square metre (W/m 2 ); kg/s 3 in base SI units.
The most common description of the electromagnetic field uses two three-dimensional vector fields called the electric field and the magnetic field. These vector fields each have a value defined at every point of space and time and are thus often regarded as functions of the space and time coordinates.
where: is the rate of change of the energy density in the volume. ∇•S is the energy flow out of the volume, given by the divergence of the Poynting vector S. J•E is the rate at which the fields do work on charges in the volume (J is the current density corresponding to the motion of charge, E is the electric field, and • is the dot product).
Visulization of flux through differential area and solid angle. As always ^ is the unit normal to the incident surface A, = ^, and ^ is a unit vector in the direction of incident flux on the area element, θ is the angle between them.
The covariant formulation of classical electromagnetism refers to ways of writing the laws of classical electromagnetism (in particular, Maxwell's equations and the Lorentz force) in a form that is manifestly invariant under Lorentz transformations, in the formalism of special relativity using rectilinear inertial coordinate systems.
The Poynting vector for a wave is a vector whose component in any direction is the irradiance (power per unit area) of that wave on a surface perpendicular to that direction. For a plane sinusoidal wave the Poynting vector is 1 / 2 Re{E × H ∗}, where E and H are due only to the
So, dimensionally, the Poynting vector is S = power / area = rate of doing work / area = ΔF / Δt Δx / area , which is the speed of light, c = Δx / Δt, times pressure, ΔF / area.
For waves in a birefringent (doubly-refractive) crystal, under the old definition, one must also specify whether the direction of propagation means the ray direction (Poynting vector) or the wave-normal direction, because these directions generally differ and are both perpendicular to the magnetic vector (Fig. 1).