Office Hours Monday 2:00-3:00 pm, Friday 11:00-12:00 pm or by appointment (please email). Feel free to email with any questions.
It is important to ask questions in class. According to MIT Prof. V. Weisskopf in speaking to junior physics majors said, "There is no such thing as a stupid question." Please see
Text book- Griffiths (G), Introduction to Electrodynamics, 4th edition. The general goal is to provide you with the mathematical tools and physics experience that will enable you to use E & M to uncover the mysteries of Nature, to solve practical problems, to do well on exams, and eventually to use during your ultimate gainful employment.
The approximate syllabus: Magnetostatics, magnetic fields in matter, electrodynamics, Maxwell's equations and conservation laws. This is material covered in Chapters 5-9.2. of Griffiths. Lectures shall begin with material from the start of Chapt. 5. The first aim is to become familiar with the details of magnetism using steady currents. This involves mastering the vector potential, and a variety of boundary value problems. Then the general form of current will be considered, and we will discuss how time-dependent electric fields cause magnetic fields (Faraday's law). The unification of electricity and magnetism occurs with the realization that time-dependent magnetic fields cause electric fields (Maxwell's contribution). If there is time, we will discuss electromagnetic waves, Chapt. 9.
Goals of course: Successful completion of the course should result in a student gaining a professional ability to solve a wide variety of technical problems involving partial differential equations. Gain understanding of magnetostatics, be able to obtain magnetic fields for various configurations of charges and boundary conditions. Gain an understanding of magnetic fields in magnetic materials of various kinds. Appreciate time-dependent electromagnetic phenomena. Heavy emphasis will be placed on problem solving and mathematical methods learned in previous math and physics courses will be employed. We shall also discuss some modern physics topics within the context of E & M
Readings are from Griffiths.
Approximate Lecture Schedule
Jan 7, 9 Magnetic Forces and Currents Text 5.1
Jan. 14,16 Bio-Savart, Divergence and curl of B - (Text 5.2,5,3) Magnetic vector potential (Text 5.4)
Approximate Jan 21,23 Magnetization, Field of Magnetized Object 6.1,6.2
Approximate Jan 28 The auxiliary field H 6.3
Jan 30 Midterm 1
Feb 4,6 Linear and non-linear magnetic materials 6.3,6.4
Feb 11, 13 EMF, Electromagnetic induction 7.1,7.2
Feb. 18, Maxwell’s equations, 7.3
Feb. 20, Midterm 2
Feb 25,27 Conservation of charge and energy 8.1 Momentum 8.2
March 3,5 Magnetic forces do no work, Waves in one dimension 8.3,9.1,9.2
March 12 Midterm 3
Homework (HW) will be assigned every week due in class on Tuesday. This is to be worked out completely. Two problems of each HW set will be graded. Late HW will not be accepted. Doing the assigned problems is probably the most important ingredient in learning the material, and your scores on these represent 20 % of the grade. You may, and should discuss the HW problems with fellow students, but the solutions must be your own.
If you make an honest effort on ALL of the problems in a given set, you will receive a minimum score of 2. Two of the problems will be graded in detail, for four points each. Thus each HW set counts 10 points. Solutions will be posted soon after class, so that you can check your solutions while they are fresh in your mind.
Please make sure that you write your name and tutorial section on your first HW page. Graded HW will be returned in the tutorial sections.
Holidays Jan. 20, Feb 17 Midterm Exams: 9am Thursday Jan. 30, 9am Thursday Feb 20, 9 amThursday March 12,
Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UWs policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/).
Scheduling issues: