engineering

Roger F. Harrington

Roger F. Harrington is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Roger F. Harrington rather than just read about it. In short: Roger Fuller Harrington (born December 24, 1925) is an American electrical engineer and professor emeritus at Syracuse University. He is best known for his contributions to computational electromagnetics with his development of method of moments (MoM).

Key takeaways

Roger F. Harrington belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Roger F. Harrington to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Roger F. Harrington from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Roger Fuller Harrington (born December 24, 1925) is an American electrical engineer and professor emeritus at Syracuse University. He is best known for his contributions to computational electromagnetics with his development of method of moments (MoM). Harrington's 1968 book, Field Computation by Moment Methods, is regarded as a pivotal textbook on the subject.

Biography Harrington was born on December 24, 1925, in Buffalo, New York. He started majoring in electrical engineering in 1943 at Syracuse University; his studies were interrupted in the following year by World War II. During this time, he served as an instructor under the Electronics Training Program at the U.S. Naval Radio Materiel School in Dearborn, Michigan, while working as an electronics technician. He completed his studies after the war, receiving B.S. and M.S. degrees in 1948 and 1950, respectively. Briefly remaining at Syracuse University as a research assistant and instructor, he started his doctoral studies under Victor H. Rumsey at Ohio State University, receiving his PhD in 1952. Harrington returned to Syracuse University following his doctoral studies, working there as a professor until his retirement in 1994. Following his retirement, he briefly worked as a visiting professor at University of Arizona. During his tenure at Syracuse University, he has worked on research projects for the U.S. Army Signal Corps, Office of Naval Research, General Electric and the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. He has also held visiting professorship positions at University of Illinois in between 1959 and 1960, University of California, Berkeley in 1964 and the Technical University of Denmark in 1969. Harrington is a recipient of IEEE Centennial Medal, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Distinguished Achievement Award and IEEE Electromagnetics Award in 1984, 1989 and 2000, respectively. In 2014, he was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal in electrical engineering for his contributions to the study of electromagnetics. He currently resides in Wheaton, Illinois with his daughter.

Research Harrington has published two standard engineering textbooks, Introduction to Electromagnetic Engineering in 1958 and Time-Harmonic Electromagnetic Fields in 1961. In 1968, he published Field Computation by Moment Methods, which introduced the unified and generalized theory of method of moments (MoM), an integral equation method for solving electromagnetic problems. The development of the method stemmed from Harrington's initial interest in using electromagnetic fields in thermonuclear fusion research. Harrington further developed the method in his future publications; method of moments later became one of go-to methods in the study of antennas, integrated circuits and waveguides, among others. Harrington's further work included the study of radiation and scattering in bodies of revolution, dielectric scattering, field integral equations and theory of characteristic modes. Harrington also expanded Lan Jen Chu and Harold Alden Wheeler's theory on the fundamental limits of electrically small radio antennas; Chu–Harrington limit, which yields a lower bound for the Q factor of a small radio antenna, is named after him.

Selected publications Articles Harrington, Roger F. (1960). "Effects of antenna size on gain, bandwidth, and efficiency". Journal of National Bureau of Standards. 64-D: 1–12. Harrington, R. F. (February 1967). "Matrix methods for field problems". Proceedings of the IEEE. 55 (2): 136–149. doi:10.1109/PROC.1967.5433. Mautz, J. R.; Harrington, R. F. (1969). "Radiation and scattering from bodies of revolution". Applied Scientific Research. 20 (1): 405–435. Bibcode:1969FTC....20..405M. doi:10.1007/BF00382412. Harrington, R. F.; Mautz, J. R. (1971). "Theory of characteristic modes for conducting bodies". IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation. 19 (5): 622–628. Bibcode:1971ITAP...19..622H. doi:10.1109/TAP.1971.1139999. Chang, Y.; Harrington, R. F. (1977). "A surface formulation for characteristic modes of material bodies". IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation. 25 (6): 789–795. Bibcode:1977ITAP...25..789C. doi:10.1109/TAP.1977.1141685. Harrington, R. F. (1978). "Reactively controlled directive arrays". IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation. 26 (3): 390–395. Bibcode:1978ITAP...26..390H. doi:10.1109/TAP.1978.1141852. Wei, Cao; Harrington, R. F.; Mautz, J. R.; Sarkar, T. K. (April 1984). "Multiconductor Transmission Lines In Multilayered Dielectric Media". IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques. 32 (4): 439–450. Bibcode:1984ITMTT..32..439W. doi:10.1109/TMTT.1984.1132696. Djordjevic, A. R.; Sarkar, T. K.; Harrington, R. F. (June 1986). "Analysis of Lossy Transmission Lines with Arbitrary Nonlinear Terminal Networks". IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques. 34 (6): 660–666. Bibcode:1986ITMTT..34..660D. doi:10.1109/TMTT.1986.1133414. Djordjevic, A. R.; Sarkar, T. K.; Harrington, R. F. (June 1987). "Time-domain response of multiconductor transmission lines". Proceedings of the IEEE. 75 (6): 743–764. doi:10.1109/PROC.1987.13797. S2CID 40311640. Rautio, J. C.; Harrington, R. F. (August 1987). "An Electromagnetic Time-Harmonic Analysis of Shielded Microstrip Circuits". IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques. 35 (8): 726–730. Bibcode:1987ITMTT..35..726R. doi:10.1109/TMTT.1987.1133738. Harrington, Roger F. (1989). "Boundary Integral Formulations for Homogeneous Material Bodies". Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications. 3 (1): 1–15. Bibcode:1989JEWA....3....1H. doi:10.1163/156939389X00016. Books Harrington, Roger F. (1958). Introduction to Electromagnetic Engineering. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780486432410. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) Harrington, Roger F. (1961). Time-Harmonic Electromagnetic Fields. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780070267459. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) Harrington, Roger F. (1968). Field Computation by Moment Methods. Macmillan. ISBN 9780780310148. Book chapters Harrington, R. F.; Mautz, J. R. (1978). "Computational Methods for Transmission of Waves Through Apertures". In Uslenghi, Piergiorgio (ed.). Electromagnetic Scattering. New York: Academic Press. pp. 429–470. ISBN 9780323142434.

See also List of textbooks in electromagnetism

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Roger F. Harrington

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Roger F. Harrington claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Roger F. Harrington before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Roger F. Harrington ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Roger F. Harrington

In research: Roger F. Harrington appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Roger F. Harrington in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Roger F. Harrington is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1925 births, 20th-century American engineers, 20th-century American male non-fiction writers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Roger F. Harrington outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Roger F. Harrington” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Roger F. Harrington in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Roger F. Harrington means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Roger F. Harrington out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Roger F. Harrington in simple terms?

Why does Roger F. Harrington matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Roger F. Harrington?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Roger F. Harrington.