3.2. Absorption and Reflection by Dielectric Material Habitable space may be made from metals and other materials such as complex arrangements of natural and artificial dielectric materials. Dielectrics are a storage medium for field energy and dissipate such energy by conduction and other irreversible processes [e.g., volume inhomogeneity scatter (Roth and Clachi, 1975)]. Two frequency-dependent, dimensionless quantities, the relative dielectric constant K (1 to 80) , and the loss tangent D (0 to 10) , are needed to calculate conductivity, heat loss, and attenuation rate. An appreciable interaction effect occurs when the thickness of the material is larger than xq/4 ~ 3 cm. The wavelength in the medium is shortened by The dielectric quantities K and D of materials related to habitable structures are given in the following Section 3.3. The dielectric conductivity is obtained from -4 Values of 10 are typical for insulators, while semiconductors fall in the 9 range of 10 mho/m. In dielectric heating, the power absorbed per unit volume of material follows from being a function of position. The power attenuation rate is expressed by (VonHippel, 1954) and covers at f the ranges given in Table 4.
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