ANIMATION OF PLANE ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES IN VACUUM USING WINPLOT SOFTWARE

Abstract

In this work, the Winplot software was used to animate plane electromagnetic waves in a vacuum. The target audience was a class of 18 undergraduates in Physics and was applied at the Federal University of Acre, campus Rio Branco, in Brazil. The activity was carried out in a computer lab and conducted through a script with detailed instructions. The results were satisfactory, where participants got more than 60.0% right of four of the six investigative questions. In evaluating the activity, 88.9% considered it a good method to visualize the propagation of electromagnetic waves and 77.0% classified the activity as excellent or good. The application of the activity allowed a dynamic view of the propagation of plane electromagnetic waves in a vacuum, which could contribute to the teaching of such content.