The burst of modern computing systems like CAD/CAM has given rise to the use of the finite element method (FEM), which is, at present, the most used numerical procedure in the determination of fields in continuous media. Undergraduate students find difficulty in understanding the usual way of demonstrating FEM by variational analysis or the Galerkin method. This paper introduces a new formulation of FEM, based on a direct application of Maxwell's second equation, which can be easily understood by undergraduate engineering students.
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