Dictionary of Electrical Engineering

Commonly used terms in the Electrical industry.

base vector
a unit vector in a coordinate direction.
current density vector field
the field (commonly denoted J ) that is related to the electric field intensity vector field by the conductivity of the medium that the fields are located in. One of the quantities found on the right side of Ampere's Law. The units are (amperes/square meter).
electric polarization vector
an auxiliary vector in electromagnetics that accounts for the creation of atomic dipoles in a dielectric material due to an applied electric field. Macroscopically, the electric polarization vector is equal to the average number of electric dipole moments per unit volume. Mathematically, P = D - Є0E, where D is the electric flux density, E is the electric field intensity, and Є0 is the free space permittivity. SI units are coulombs per square meter.
electric vector potential
a vector function that is used to derive solutions for electric and magnetic fields.
magnetic polarization vector
an auxiliary vector in electromagnetics that accounts for the presence of atomic circulating currents in a material. Macroscopically, the magnetic polarization vector is equal to the average number of magnetic dipole moments per unit volume.
magnetic vector potential
an auxiliary field used to simplify electromagnetic computations. This field satisfies a wave equation, the curl of this field is related to the magnetic field intensity vector field, and the divergence of this field is specified by some gage which is to be specified in each problem.
vector
a quantity having both magnitude and direction.
vector controlled induction motor
a variable speed controller and motor in which the magnetizing and torque producing components of current are controlled separately. Some vector drives requires rotor position sensors. Vector controlled induction motors can operate over a wider speed range, and may produce rated torque even at zero speed, much like a DC motor. Thus, vector controlled induction motors are often used for applications that might otherwise require a DC motor drive.