Teaching and Learning Electromagnetic Polarization Using Mobile Devices [Education Corner]

The wide avai lability of smart handheld and mobile devices has provided educators with another opportunity to aid the teaching of electromagnetics (EM) courses with touchbased interactivity, allowing seamless teaching and learning. This article explores how mobile devices may be used to enhance students' grasp of EM polarization concepts through a special app designed to provide interactive visualization. It also helps instructors to effectively illustrate many wave polarization topics through various interactive features. By using the app, various polarizations can be better explained with two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) animations. Users are allowed to input various wave parameters to see, in real time, how they change the polarization ellipse and/or handedness.