A computer aided education tool for electromagnetic scattering phenomena

In this paper, a computer aided education tool to understand electromagnetic scattering phenomena is described. "Real time" solving is performed using the finite element method coupled with a first order absorbing boundary condition. Computed results are displayed as a time animation. Three examples are presented: radiation from a wire (in order to illustrate propagation phenomena), scattering by a lossy dielectric cylinder (in order to compare induced and displacement currents) and scattering by a parallel plate waveguide (in order to understand the cutoff phenomenon).